found that they supported the recommendation to
repurpose. According to McKnight, the participation
of the community is very important to the work at the
park.
“It’s centrally located within this community to
serve, and it’s uniquely designed to serve churches and
schools,” she said. “We are situated in such a space
where we can serve so many people from so many
different angles.”
Raby said that once the park offers its new
amenities, residents of the area will be able to use it
more. Previously, visitors not golfing were confined to
the less ample non-golf areas of the park, while the
course saw a relatively small scattering of visitors.
“We still have plenty of golf courses for the
golfers to play at,” he said. He named Dumas, Webb,
City and Clark golf courses as alternative BREC golf
destinations.
One of Raby’s goals is to get BREC’s courses to
the point of self-support. With the exception of Santa
Maria Golf Course, all of BREC’s courses currently
run at an annual deficit and need taxpayers’ support.
“The weakness of that is, if one levy in support
of BREC doesn’t pass, all of a sudden, we’d have to
close multiple golf courses,” he said. “So I would like
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to get as many of the BREC golf courses to a breakeven situation, so that in the event that BREC ever
wasn’t able to subsidize golf, we’d be able to run them
anyway, just based on their own merits.”
As for phase two of Howell Park’s expansion,
McKnight said she hopes to create a recreation center
and add other unique features. The second phase will
likely begin late next year or in 2018.
“This is a good place to be,” McKnight said.
“It’s an exciting time for Baton Rouge and for BREC,
and we’re excited to make this happen.”