A Carthage City Council committee endorsed a proposal that the city lease a privately owned golf driving range with an eye toward possibly buying the land in the next couple of years.

According to a proposal worked out between Parks Director Alan Bull and the range's owner, Dennis Detert, the city would sign an 18-month lease and pay Detert $4,000 a year to operate the 15-acre driving range for two seasons.

A written contract still has to be worked out, but Bull and City Administrator Tom Short recommended that the committee act fast so the range could be opened as soon as possible.

"Dennis doesn't want it any more, and his ultimate goal is to sell it," Bull said at Monday's meeting of the public services committee. "The land should be park land, it's surrounded on three sides by Municipal Park and it only makes sense that it be a part of the park.

"What Dennis is offering is that we operate the range for this season and one more season. For $4,000 per year, he's offering us the land his building, his equipment, pads and any balls he has left. He just wants us to cover his costs for the land and hold him harmless for any liability."

Carthage Golf Pro Mark Peterson said the driving range has added significantly to the operation of the golf course as a privately operated business and he can see ways the city can improve on the business so it adds even more for members.

Short said the addition of the driving range could make money for the city and help it make the annual payments on the golf course renovation that took place in 2000.

Short said the Steadley Trust committed to pay $1.8 million of the $2.6 million cost of the renovations, and has been making annual $200,000 payments on the project for the past seven years, but their payments end in 2010.

The city must find a source of revenue to make up that payment and the driving range will help.

Short and Bull said they have documents showing how much money the range made in the past two years, but they declined to make that amount public because of the still ongoing lease negotiations.

In other business, the public services committee gave its O.K. to a $15,000 bid from A and M Pyrotechnics for the July 4 fireworks display. Short and Bull recommended A and M's bid over bids provided by J and M Displays and Premier Pyrotechnics because of A and M's larger number of aerial displays.

The committee also gave its approval to a plan by the Carthage Little League to erect a marker at the Fair Acres Sports Complex honoring the 2007 baseball team.
Members also said yes to a Joplin Sports Authority request to hold a girls softball tournament July 21-27 in Carthage.

All these actions will need a full-council approval before they become official. The city council's next meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m., May 13 at Carthage City Hall.