LEESVILLE — The municipal golf course will become a premier recreational spot, if Mayor Rick Allen has his way.

“The past administration wanted to abandon the golf course. They wanted to close it down, so they wouldn’t spend any money on it,” he said. “But I’m determined to make that thing work.”

The course has historically lost money, but Allen said he hopes to change that. Within the next year, he said he wants to have the golf course “in perfect condition.”

He said it was a service the city should provide to residents.

In May, City Council member Danny Dowd said the condition of carts was hurting the city’s prospects to turn a profit there.

“I have people tell me they won’t go play (on the course) for fear of getting stranded,” Dowd said.

Council members voted in June to lease six golf carts for the course, at a cost of $70 per month per cart. The cost — $420 a month for all six — includes maintenance. The lease would last four years. Leesville also purchased two 2010-model carts in May for $1,800 each.

Only five of the greens have working sprinkler systems, but Allen said the city’s Public Works Department is getting ready to install more on the rest of the course. He said the city will update its mowing equipment and may install drinking water stations on the greens.

Allen said the city plans to ask groups like the Lions Club, which has in recent years taken its golf tournaments to Alexandria, to consider coming back to Leesville.

He said the new lease agreement would allow the city to call and request more carts if it hosts a tournament.(Special to the American Press)