RINCON — The Rincon City Council is looking for someone to take a swing at running Lost Plantation Golf Club. The city-owned facility operated at a net annual loss ranging from just under $10,000 to $137,000 from 2015-17.

Late last year, the council sought a vendor to lease the club’s grille but received inadequate responses.

During a Feb. 18 council meeting, City Manager John Klimm recited some of the findings about the course listed in an evaluation of the club by National Golf Foundation Consulting of Jupiter, Fla. It says, “We believe that, based on the city’s objective of minimizing taxpayer subsidy of the golf operation, the next logical step is to issue a Request for Expressions of Interest or a Request for Proposals for a full-operating lease of the Lost Plantation Golf Club. This process, while committing the city to nothing, will provide very valuable information about potential interest from the private sector in operating the Lost Plantation Golf Club on a lease basis.”

“That is what we recommend that the city do,” Klimm said. “In all of our conversations about the golf course, we have recommended a systematic approach so that, ultimately, in the near future, we can make a final decision on the future of the golf course. The challenges that we face are not dissimilar to the challenges of other municipal courses around the country but, I think, the real challenge that we face is that increasing subsidy of the golf course is draining funds from other legitimate and basic municipal services such as police, fire, recreation and other.

“The challenge for us is to figure out what our best option is.”

Klimm and City Attorney Raymond Dickey submitted a Request for Proposal for lease of the club for the council to consider. The city manager sought clarification of several policy questions.

“For example, what do we do with the existing equipment that is there if we are to put out a request for proposals for an entity to come in and take over the golf course?” Klimm said.

Klimm suggested hiring a non-biased third party to assess measure the current condition of the course and gauge its quality under a future operator.

“I think that’s one way of getting around the real concern of getting around what happens if there is a precipitous drop in the condition of the course,” Klimm said.

The council unanimously approved the Request for Proposal measure. Sealed proposals will be accepted until March 29.

A pre-proposal meeting of potential suitors is set at the club March 15.