Golf course could add back nine

City officials and board members of the Portales Country Club have entered into preliminary discussions about making the country club’s nine-hole course an 18-hole layout.

Portales City Manager Debi Lee said the city owns land adjacent to the PCC’s golf course and the discussions are in the very early stages.

“We have just had some brainstorming talks with them,” Lee said. “Mainly we’re looking at a way to develop that land out there that is conducive to what the country club currently has with some potential option of expanding the golf course.”

Last week city officials planned a special city council meeting for Monday to discuss the expansion but canceled the meeting late last week.

The proposed project is a joint effort for enhancing the area’s economic development, said Gary Robbins, who is on a committee formed to study the project’s feasibility.

The PCC’s board will meet today and will most likely discuss but not make any decisions on the proposal, said PCC member Gary Creighton.

Creighton said Portales residents at a recent community economic development meeting discussed the possibility of enhancing their quality of life with an 18-hole course.

Sometime after the meeting Mayor Orlando Ortega approached members of the board about the possibility, but the board has not formally discussed anything related to the expansion yet, Creighton said.

“I think it has been talked about in this community for years but nothing has ever been done about it,” Creighton said. “If there’s an interest lets explore it; if not we’ll go one to something else.”

Ortega said it was too early to comment on the initiative.

Portales City Councilman D.K. Shafer said if the proposed project happens the city would most likely own nine holes and the country club nine.

Lee, however, said there are a couple of options: Sell the city’s land to the PCC for expansion; or build nine holes on city property and make the entire course municipal for so many days and private for the remainder.

“At this point we’re really just gathering information, we’re going to explore the options, costs, what types of partnerships would be legal under the anti-donation clause of the New Mexico Constitution and is there an interest in the community to have an 18-hole golf course.”