Editors Note: This article was originally published in the March 13, 2024 issue of the Chronicle Progress. Some information may be outdated.
Paradise owners say annual losses threaten to force closure if city doesn’t step in to help
After more than $2 million in losses since it opened, Fillmore’s 9-hole Paradise Golf Course is on the verge of closing.
The course, which sits like a green sentry, welcoming visitors into Fillmore, was first considered in 1983. When it was finally built in 1998, the city agreed to donate up to 45 million gallons of water annually to keep the course an attractive recreation option.
The Fullmer family, who own the nearby hotel, agreed to operate the course as a private enterprise, hoping simply to break even, while providing a public service.
When family patriarch Don Fullmer—he spent $1.2 million building the original course—died last year, his heirs began to wonder how they can keep the golf course open, despite the persistent financial losses.
Donny Fullmer, named after his grandfather, provided a snapshot of his family’s ongoing difficulties running the course during a presentation to Fillmore City Council members last Thursday.
He laid out the course’s history, its expenses as well as a few options for its future the city should consider.
One highlight Fullmer pointed out was that the course, though it gets 45 million gallons of free water each year—or 7 million a month—it actually uses and pays for more than that, which has contributed to the course’s lopsided balance sheet. The city charges “overage” fees each month the course uses more than 7 million gallons of water, he said.
That alone has cost the course $261,983 in additional water expenses since 2009. A few years the course would have been profitable or near profitable if not for the additional water costs. In 2023, the course spent $17,699 on water “overage” fees, but only accumulated a total of $10,957 in net losses, meaning the course would have made $7,000 in profit if not for the additional water costs.
In 2021, a federal pandemic loan helped the course come close to profiting—it only lost $3,719 that year, but also paid $19,460 in additional water costs.
While the course’s driving range is irrigated with Fillmore Water Users association water shares, the remainder of the course depends on city culinary water, Fullmer told council members.
“We’re happy to keep running the course. We love running the course. But we are not financially equipped to continue running the course with the losses it accumulates,” he said. “When my grandpa made that agreement back in 1998, he had four hotels, and all of them were really successful except for one.”
Fullmer said his grandfather eventually sold one hotel, gave two others to his children. He also owned a farm, but it was also not profitable.
“He lost a lot of money on that,” he said. “And then he lost a lot of money on the golf course. That’s slowly made it so our financial capabilities on taking care of this course have been severely limited.”
Fullmer said in 2019, when the course attempted to conserve water during a particularly bad period in the ongoing drought, the Fillmore Water Users Association threatened to take away some of its irrigation shares since they weren’t being used.
Having a publicly-funded, 18-hole course as the competition, also doesn’t help.
The county pays for Delta’s golf course, which is also a money loser on an annual basis.
A check of county records shows the Delta course cost the county some $757,733 in 2023, with about $305,000 of that amount offset by revenue from its pro shop and fees collected from golfers.
“We’ve been undercut by Delta’s golf course for years…with us being a family-owned course and the county being publicly funded, they were able to afford the hundreds of thousands of dollars lost on their course annually. But we cannot,” Fullmer said.
He added that a common complaint from golfers in Fillmore is that for the same price as playing Paradise’s 9-hole course, they can gas up their car and drive to Delta’s 18-hole course.
“The golf course (in Fillmore) has never made money,” he told council members.
The best option for keeping the course open, Fullmer said, is for the city to step up and pay for all of the course’s water. He also said the city should allow the course to employ city equipment for maintenance, which could help further offset costs. This was the option his family most preferred, Fullmer said.
A second option was for the city simply to take over the golf course and keep it operating, leasing the property from the family for a minuscule monthly amount, say $100.
“Fillmore City is never going to go out of business, but my family sure can,” Fullmer said.
This second option, he noted, would add considerably to the city’s costs to maintain it since the city’s workforce is more expensive than the course’s current hourly workers, some of whom are paid in golf passes.
The third option Fullmer shared was simply to close the course, potentially leaving an eyesore in the heart of the city and forcing golfers to travel to Delta to play locally. Fullmer said this would most seriously impact the Millard High golf team, which would no longer have a place to practice.
“Basically, we are not threatening anything. We are grateful for everything the city has done for us so far. But we’re just not in a financial position to continue paying those heavy losses each year,” he said. “It’s a pretty expensive hobby to pay for a golf course.”
Councilman Curt Hare said Fullmer couldn’t have come to the city at a worst time. Before the regular city council meeting, officials met during a work session to discuss halting new annexations into the city. Concerns are growing that the city won’t have the water resources and other infrastructure to support a spike in growth. Officials are also worried about what a Utah Geological Survey study of the Pahvant Valley aquifer will report when it is imminently released. The basin has long been known to be over-allocated. And officials expect restrictions may soon be imposed on some water rights holders.
Councilman Dennis Alldredge—he works part time at the Fillmore golf course— asked about irrigation water shares and whether the Fullmer family might consider trading some of those with the city if the city agrees to cover the extra water costs.
A course employee in the audience said Paradise Management Inc.—the course owner’s official name—owns more shares than it could ever use. Problems with accessing that water system for anything more than the driving range, however, makes using irrigation water on the rest of the course untenable.
“What about the possibility then, if we were even to consider the possibility of something like this, that we receive some of those water shares in trade with the city to be used for other things,” Alldredge asked.
“That’s something we would consider,” Fullmer answered.
The Fullmer family has a long history of generous giving to the city.
Don Fullmer not only built and operated the golf course, he also donated 40 acres of property for the city’s cheese plant as well as property for Fullmer Stadium, where the city hosted horse riding events.
“My family has donated quite a few things throughout time to the city,” Fullmer said.
Alldredge asked how much it costs the city currently to water the golf course annually, with the 45 million gallons the city provides, or at 7 million gallons a month.
Fullmer guessed it to be about $60,000. City Treasurer Kevin Orton agreed that figure was close, estimating it to run between $60,000 and $80,000 a year.
According to city budget figures, in 2021 it cost the city $77,000. In 2022, water costs were about $71,000. And last year that figure rose to $79,000.
During those years, the course’s owners paid an additional $19,460 in 2021, $18,216 in 2022 and $17,699 last year for water.
Mayor Mike Holt said the city was not able to take action yet, but did want to further study the issue and formulate a plan in the near future.
