The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

Banks Lake Golf Course and surrounding land have been declared surplus items, opening up the possibility of them being sold.

Grant County Port District 7 commissioners, who manage the golf course as well as the nearby airport, declared the golf course, the clubhouse, equipment, and surrounding land surplus at their April 25 meeting, with a total of 189.3 acres included, valued at $1.64 million.

That surrounding land is estimated to be about 79 acres, separate from the golf course, and could potentially be used for residential development.

Commissioner Leonard Sanders said the district had been considering the idea for some time, and that the fact that the course is run by volunteers has made it hard to develop it.

"The people that are volunteering for the golf course are getting burned out," Sanders said. "So if something doesn't change, the volunteers will quit, and the golf course will just fold up because there won't be anybody to mow the lawns, work the concessions and all of that. They've done really well. They made a really good contribution and kept it afloat. It's time to see if somebody else wants to make it a business and run it."

"We can't develop it any further," Secretary Debbie Bigelow said. "It's all we can do to keep the doors open with volunteers, let alone develop it."

"For it to be taken to the next level, there needs to be a baton handoff," Chairman Jim Keene said. "This could be a catalyst for major development."

Keene expressed a desire to sell the property to someone who will manage the golf course in the same spirit as the predecessors who started the golf course in the mid-1980s, speculating that a developer could build condominiums or otherwise develop the course beyond what the district is capable of doing.

"As we negotiate a sale, our interest is to find someone who wants to maintain the golf course," Keene continued. "We would be in the corner of anyone who would take on having a public course here."

Keene added that many golf courses support their course through additional revenue brought in through residential development.

"It would be a big win for the community if we were to have a developer step forward," he said.

Keene said that there has been informal interest expressed toward buying the course, and that declaring it as surplus opens up the possibility for formal offers.

Keene also said that the primary purpose of the port district is to manage the airport, and that the money acquired by the sale of the golf course would give the district financial security to do so.

"It would give us capacity to develop the airport in a way that we haven't had," Keene said about the potential sale. "It would open up possibilities here at the airport."

The commissioners, Keene, Sanders, and Gary Haag, unanimously approved the resolution to declare the property surplus.