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FARMVILLE — After months of discussion, the Farmville town council reached a decision this week. The Farmville Municipal Golf Course will be closed and put up for sale. 

After talking in closed session, the council voted at its regular meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 10, agreeing to put the golf course up for sale at a price of $995,000. 

Per the council’s request, Town Manager Dr. Scott Davis sent a request to local real estate companies to provide the town with a market analysis for the property. This was sent along with requests for appraisals. Having only heard back from Statewide Realty, the next step was for the Farmville town council to decide whether to continue to keep the golf course open, put it up for sale or look into leasing the course to another owner to keep it running. 

Councilman Thomas Pairet motioned to sell the property and list it at $995,000 with Statewide Realty for a period of six months. Councilman Brian Vincent seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. 

The council then voted for the course to remain open until the end of the day Friday, Aug. 12. 

Why the course is closing

The Farmville Municipal Golf Course is located at 36 Wedgewood Drive in Cumberland County, right outside the Farmville Regional Airport. The nine-hole golf course is open seven days a week and offers par 70 courses, a putting green, a complete practice facility with a driving range, a chipping area and a sand bunker.

The conversation about closing the curse started at the April 13 meeting of the Farmville town council, when Davis proposed the budget for the upcoming fiscal year. The new budget took the $217,224 funding for the golf course and put the money towards raises and expenses for core services. 

“I believe it is something that people who play golf enjoy; however, it’s not a core service for every resident in the Town of Farmville,” said Davis in his budget presentation at the April meeting. “We’ve been having a loss of anywhere between $200,000 and $250,000 a year. I think that this is a time where we need to take that off the table so that we can begin to put money into core services.”

The original plan was to close the course at the end of the fiscal year on June 30 with the Farmville Golf Course Banquet Room still kept up for events. Members of the Town Council received feedback from Farmville residents to try to keep the course open or sell it. At the May 4, work session, Council voted to get the course appraised to sell. 

Farmville town council raises concern   

The Farmville town council voted on June 8 to keep the course open with contingency funds. This came due to Councilman Daniel Dwyer’s concern. He was afraid if the greens weren’t maintained, the course would ultimately be condemned. 

“Personally, I’d like to see one of two things, have at least the grounds maintained until we can determine if there is a potential buyer for it as a golf course, or second, we can keep the golf course open for a certain amount of time and still allow us to determine if it could be marketed as a golf course,” Dwyer said.

With the recent development announced at the August meeting, the course will be closed and put up for sale.