by Dennis Dalman
A co-owner of Boulder Ridge said he and his business partner never requested a termination of their lease to operate their Pine Ridge Golf Course on land owned by the City of Sartell.
In an interview with the Newsleader, co-owner Dan Dols said he learned recently there was a statement on the Sartell city website that he and co-owner Ted Klein had requested lease termination.
“We never requested termination!” Dols said, emphasizing every word. “I tried to send a letter (by) email to the city to say that statement was false, but apparently the city’s email was not working, so then I made a phone call. We did not – and do not – want to get out of the lease. We would like it extended for another five years.”
In the city council informational packet for its May 8 meeting, there is a “Staff Memo” that introduces the purchase agreement. Part of that memo states the following:
“The golf course will remain operated by Boulder Ridge through 2023, with the proposed lease termination taking place on Nov. 15, 2023, as requested by Boulder Ridge, to have a clear end date that does not go into 2024 due to business operational concerns.”
Dols and Klein share a 50/50 ownership of Pine Ridge Golf Course and Boulder Ridge Golf Course, which is located in southwest St. Cloud near the new Tech High School.
The statement about them wanting to quit the lease angered the co-owners because, as Dols said, people have been wondering and asking why they want to shut down the Pine Ridge Golf Course.
“They now think we are quitting, and we’re having to explain to them that we’re not,” Dols said. “And we never had any issues with the City of Sartell. We paid for that water pump and we, not the city, take care of irrigation problems. We just got 25 new (golf) carts this year.”
Dols said the golf course in Sartell employs 18 people. For the first eight years of operation, it was not making any money, despite the fact the two men spent $250,000 on making improvements and revisions in changing it from an 18-hole to a 9-hole course. Dols said for the past four or five years, the course did finally start making a profit.
“We never wanted to terminate that lease and we never requested it,” Dols said. “I’ve lost sleep over this.”
