Greg Semione, of Gloversville, hits out of the sand on the 9th hole green during opening day at Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course on April 5, 2021.
Greg Semione, of Gloversville, hits out of the sand on the 9th hole green during opening day at Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course on April 5, 2021. Tourist Golf Car
AMSTERDAM — The Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course will have 20 additional golf carts this season as the city assesses the impact of an expanded fleet before the lease on 40 existing vehicles runs out in the fall.
A $130,500 bid for 20 gas-powered carts with a $1,500 delivery fee was awarded to Five Star Golf Carts and Utility Vehicles by the Common Council on Tuesday. The Queensbury-based dealer was the lowest responsible bidder to respond to a request for proposals.
The carts are expected to be delivered by June 1. The weather dependent opening date for the course has not been set, but the season will likely be underway before the new carts arrive. The course opened in mid-April last season.
“We are hoping to have those 20 as soon as we can get them, but we’ll be ready to service golfers on opening day,” Mayor Michael Cinquanti said. “We have a fleet of carts.”
The new carts will be used in conjunction with the existing fleet of 40 leased vehicles. The city does not plan to buy or extend the lease on the aging carts and will instead use this season to test the impact of an expanded fleet.
Previous cart shortages have prevented the course from offering approximately 44 tee times during peak hours every weekend, meaning the city has been missing out on at least $100,000 in potential revenue each year.
The sparse fleet has also required the city to spend money renting carts to adequately service tournaments and other special events at the course.
Officials opted to buy 20 carts now to bring the fleet up to 60 carts for this season in order to gather data on the financial impact and actual return on investment from added vehicles. Those statistics will be used to decide how many carts to buy when the leased vehicles are returned ahead of the 2025 season.
“We’ll have all we need for the full season,” Cinquanti said. “At the end of the year, based on usage of carts, we’ll decide how many of the 40 that are going off the lease we need to replace.”
Owning the carts instead of leasing them will build equity in the vehicles and provide the city the option to keep them in service for the duration of their useful life. The vehicles could also be sold and replaced as they age.
The council last month authorized the city to issue up to $140,000 in bond anticipation notes to cover the estimated cost of 20 carts based on informal quotes. The price from Five Star Golf Carts and Utility Vehicles, factoring in delivery, is $8,000 less than expected.
“The bids came back cheaper than what we budgeted,” 5th Ward Alderman James Martuscello said.
The short-term borrowing to fund the cart purchase is expected to be repaid using revenue generated at the golf course from the expanded fleet.
Reach Ashley Onyon at aonyon@dailygazette.net or @AshleyOnyon on X.
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