I read Frank Jossi’s piece on the golfing industry [“The Missing Links,” September] with particular interest in the “Youth Only” or “Youth With an Adult” facility at the National Sports Center in Blaine. That is what we were promised back in 1998 by proponents of the project. Yes, a “youth only facility,” which was to potentially host a PGA Tour event by the year 2002. I would ask Jossi if he is certain this eighteen-hole facility is for youth only. According to the MASC, the eighteen-hole course is their “Events” course. Three years ago, the First Tee people described the nine-hole course as the “youth only” course. However, according to the EIS report on the Anoka County Airport released earlier this year, the MASC dropped that nine-hole course back in 2000, citing wetland issues. I have been involved with this sham since 1998. Representative Phil Krinkie did the right thing by asking for an investigation into this matter. After all, if you had 450 acres to build a 270-acre project, why would you spend $2 million to buy up a 75-acre sod farm nowhere near where the golf course was being built? Especially when there already was a $1.7 million appropriation to purchase the same land?
Bill Folkes
Coon Rapids
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