In November Jim Martin unrolled a large colored map of his predecessor's proposed golf course on a Lake Jackson City Hall conference table and explained his dilemma. A marine biology major at Texas A&M, Martin works as head of an industrial sales company; he was wearing jeans, a paisley Western shirt and cowboy boots. Martin says he's been accused of confusing voters because of his honesty. Since he was elected to his $75-a-month job last May, Martin has spent most of his time working on the golf course, trying hard to wiggle out of Doris Williams's deal.
With Martin's encouragement, John Cone and his partner have already made a presentation to City Council about their alternative, and their deal is coming together fast. They have options to buy much of the land needed for a golf course and have hired a reputable course architect to design it. Water will be held in retention ponds, and, it's promised, the feared big ditch won't have to be dug, for Cone is only talking about building a hundred homes near the course. About 15 acres of the land belongs to the Brazosport Independent School District, and there are legal obstacles to be hurdled in the transfer of school district land. Another parcel belongs to a partnership whose trustee is state Senator Buster Brown. Brown stands to make money on this deal, though Cone says the senator won't do more than pay off his loan from First National Bank of Lake Jackson for $6,000 an acre. To obtain the golf course site, the city will have to sell or trade nearby land at the highway intersection that's ideal for commercial development, and Martin moved quickly to have that transaction evaluated.
But putting together this new deal shouldn't be a problem. Lake Jackson politicians are a tight bunch. Brown and the school superintendent and the county judge go hunting together. They're used to doing pretty much what they want -- most of the time.
There's a certain comic irony in this new deal. Environmental pressure has pushed Lake Jackson's golf course into the hands of the town's leading politicians and developers, or exactly where one might have expected it to go all along.
Meanwhile, Martin's just trying to bring things to a conclusion. This Monday, the Lake Jackson City Council met to decide whether to go with Cone's alternative or to keep its hackles up and push on for the original golf course site. And once again, things fell apart. On the day of the meeting, Cone withdrew his offer in a dispute with the Council over the cost of the golf course. Two other deals are in the works, but unless one of them is firmed up, Lake Jackson is stuck with its original golf course site and is headed for court.
It all means more headaches for Martin. Another politician might have glossed over the mistakes of his predecessor, but Martin is not that type of man. He was the Council member who three years ago said that the city ought to quit fighting the feds and find another site. And he is still miffed that Doris Williams didn't tell him or other Council members about the offers that she turned down.
The city's most recent feasibility study reveals that the course, wherever it goes, isn't likely to pay for its first years of operation through user fees, as originally promised. The city will have to borrow money to run the course, and the front-end financing costs will be high. The total cost of the course, now estimated at $7 million, will eventually be recovered from users over a period of 25 to 40 years, says Martin, but to get it started, Lake Jackson voters are going to have to approve higher taxes. Martin has scheduled an election on January 18 on the issue, and by that time, he promises, voters will know exactly how much the project is going to cost them.
"I'm going to tell everything I know," says Martin, "the good, the bad and the ugly, and they can make an educated vote.
"And I'll tell you another thing," he says, with all the benefit that hindsight can bring, and all the acceptance of reality that six years of struggle with federal agencies can teach. "As long as I am mayor, any land that is bought and sold by the city will have an appraisal and an environmental assessment before it is bought or sold.
