DeBell should be converted to dog park

Burbank City Council members and city management personnel continue to insist that the money-losing DeBell Golf Club will one day become solvent (“DeBell is given another reprieve by council,” April 27).

When this might happen they do not know. What they do know is how to keep propping up this flailing city facility. The $1-million golf course loan given in 2011 and originally scheduled to begin repayment in January 2014 has now been given a two-year reprieve by the city council to 2016.

College graduates unable to find employment yet saddled with thousands of dollars in education loans are not given reprieves. Why then should DeBell be given preferential treatment at taxpayer expense? Even after spending thousands of dollars on a consultant for advice on how best to run it, the place still shows no impressive financial gains. It’s time for city officials to give up the fantasy that DeBell supported itself before, so it will support itself in the future. Why does the city need another golf course? As outgoing Mayor Dave Golonski pointed out in a Los Angeles Times column (“Burbank’s many charms,” April 2), the Lakeside Golf Club is in Burbank.

It looks as though taxpayers will never see full repayment of this loan, so we might as well receive some benefit from this facility. DeBell needn’t be shuttered; it would make a wonderful dog park. Our canine companions would love chasing balls up and down the hills. And Frisbees are already there.

Molly Shore
Burbank