ASHLAND – Brookside Golf Course has become a hot-button issue in Ashland in recent months, but some of the claims being made are not true, according to one concerned citizen who has studied the issue extensively.

“Brookside has become a political football and it’s got to stop,” Ken Eckenroth said Tuesday during a city council meeting.

Eckenroth is a retired real estate appraiser and retired professional golfer. He also had previously worked for the State of North Carolina purchasing conservation easement properties and teaching conservation easement law.

Many different numbers have been stated as to how much the city has had to subsidize the golf course in recent years, but Eckenroth found some different numbers. Eckenroth quoted a financial report that City Finance Director Larry Paxton sends out to city employees each week. According to the Sept. 29 report, the golf course has $493,602 in receipts and expenses of $415,911, showing a $77,000 profit for the golf course through the end of September.

“What I’m trying to point out here is it seems there has been some prejudicial treatment of Brookside,” Eckenroth said.

He said he has studied the council minutes from the past four or five years and he found a pattern in how the golf course is treated.

‘The best example of that pattern is we’re talking about spending $400,000 for tennis courts but we’re not talking about anything to improve the condition of Brookside. We want to spend $100,000 from the last council meeting I was at for a heated pool. This is for a facility that essential provides no income and is only open three months out of the year, yet nothing is done for Brookside,” Eckenroth said.

Eckenroth said there has been a lot of talk about selling the golf course. While council does have the authority to sell the property, there are some very specific restrictions.

“This property is protected,” Eckenroth said.

Brookside has a grant agreement from April 19, 1976, for $149,337 from the Land and Water Conservation Trust Fund. Because of the grant, The Secretary of the Interior of the United States would have to approve the conversion of the property, and he would only do that if certain requirements are met.

“If you should decide to sell the golf course, you will have to replace it with a property of like kind use and it will have to be in a similar location,” Eckenroth said. “So you would have to replace Brookside with a golf course in city limits and you would have to do it at fair market value.”

The land could be leased but it also would have to be approved by The Secretary of the Interior and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Eckenroth emphasized that municipal golf courses are not meant to be money-makers.

“I think Brookside Golf Course needs to be treated with the respect it deserves as an asset of this community,” Eckenroth said.