Updates on Black Gold Golf Club, city's library

Updates on two of Yorba Linda's most utilized city-owned facilities are worthy of attention: the Black Gold Golf Club for a new incentive-oriented management contract and the public library for a notable increase in the circulation of e-books and other digital materials.

The new golf course pact with KemperSports, approved on a 5-0 City Council vote, extends the firm's 15-year management of Black Gold another five years, into 2020, but with a lower base fee than past years plus two levels of fees calculated on a percentage of revenues.

The firm's fixed fee drops from $250,000 to $150,000 yearly, with the greater of a consumer price index or 2 percent annual increase, supplemented by 7 percent of revenues from $4.6 million to $6 million and 9 percent of revenues above $6 million.

Black Gold annual income, now about $5.6 million, isn't expected to exceed $6 million until 2020. The percentage portion of the fee is projected to range from $76,000 in 2016 to near $99,000 in 2020 and is capped at $250,000 per year.

Savings over current fees are estimated at $24,000 for 2016, dropping to under $4,000 in 2019, and could reach $52,000 over five years.

“However, if revenues exceed projections, the fees to KemperSports could be higher. Conversely, if revenues do not meet expectations, the fees would be reduced accordingly,” the city's parks and recreation superintendent, Mike Kudron, reported to council members.

The fee for handling Community Center catering remains at 4 percent of revenue (no fixed fee), which is not added to the income thresholds that mandate increased golf course fees.

The Yorba Linda library's noteworthy report to the California State Library, part of a national collection of data coordinated by the Institute for Museum and Library Science, was presented to the council recently by Library Director Carrie Lixey.

“Not surprisingly, the rise in our digital culture has created a paradigm shift in how the comm-unity uses the library. Despite the decrease in the circulation of print materials . . . circulation continues to increase because e-book and digital check-outs continue to grow,” Lixey noted.

Circulation declines include 0.5 percent in children's materials, 2.7 percent in adult materials, 7.1 percent in young adult materials and 8 percent for magazines in the most recently completed fiscal year over the prior year.

But a 54 percent increase in the circulation of electronic materials kept total circulation in the plus column, up 2.9 percent, or 917,134 items for 2013-14 over 891,041 for 2012-13.

Similarly, the library's print book collection dropped 5.5 percent, from 135,576 to 128,133, while the number of electronic books jumped close to 162 percent, from 20,181 to 52,854.

Patrons with library cards increased nearly 30 percent to 6,858, but library visits declined 1 percent to 334,942, an average of about 1,100 per day. Web site visits increased 11.4 per-cent to 213,565.