The Cook County Board of Commissioners took a letter from Lutsen resident and business owner Paul Quinn very seriously at its July 19, 2011 meeting. The same letter appeared as a letter to the editor in the July 16 edition of the Cook County News-Herald.
In that letter, Quinn questioned whether Sirius Golf Advisors, the consulting firm the county board hired to do an independent evaluation of the Superior National at Lutsen golf course to determine how to make it financially successful, would really be delivering an unbiased evaluation.
Last year, the county board decided to solicit the advice of an independent consulting firm after Friends of Superior National, a group of people interested in the course, offered to provide direction for the course. Quinn took issue with the fact that some of the people in Friends of Superior National were named to a golf course committee appointed by the Cook County-Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA), which owns the course.
In his letter, Quinn expressed concern that some of the same people had been communicating with Sirius as the firm gathered information for its evaluation.
After trusting that hiring Sirius would be a safe way to get an independent viewpoint, Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said, “I think there’s been a shift.” He said he thought Sirius might think it’s working for the EDA and the golf course rather than for the county board.
Commissioner Bruce Martinson said Sirius had not contacted any of the commissioners as it gathered information, while it had talked to Friends of Superior National and golf course committee member Mark Sandbo three times. He said he was told Sandbo had been part of the process because he is vice-chair of the EDA and because he also knows about golf.
Stan Tull, a citizen who regularly attends county board meetings, said he thinks some people in the public believe the county board and the EDA are together “in the same boat,” and “half the people are bailing while the other half are drilling holes” regarding the golf course.
County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers said that Sirius President John Wait has told him he has worked very hard to remain independent and neutral, something he knew the county had been very clear about from the beginning.
The county board will meet with Sirius to discuss its recommendations after the lunch break following the regular county board meeting on Tuesday, July 26 at the courthouse. That meeting, as with all meetings of the county board, is open to the public.
1 percent revenue and expenditures
Auditor-Treasurer Powers reported that the revenue collected from the county’s 1 percent sales and use tax in its first 13 months was $1,119,950. In its first 12 months, it brought in 3.4 percent less than the former 1 percent hospital tax had brought in during its best year in 2007.
The revenue will be used for numerous recreational capital improvement projects throughout the county, such as the one planned for Superior National.
As of the end of June, the county had spent $325,625 on the community center project, $100,566 on the library expansion, $22,876 on Superior National at Lutsen golf course, and $35,846 on Birch Grove Community Center.
Between now and the end of the year, Powers anticipated that another $1,300,000 would be spent on the library and $664,000 on Birch Grove, leaving an estimated $699,663 in the bank, based on last year’s revenue during those months.
By this fall, Powers said, the county will need to either bond or take money out of its fund balance to pay bills that are coming in on the projects that are under way.
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