In the rough over Evesham-owned course

The ballroom at the Indian Spring Country Club is called the Aurora Room, named for the Roman goddess who rises from the ocean in a chariot to bring on the dawn and is a reminder of former Councilwoman Dawn Marie Addiego's role in its construction.

Addiego was the driving force behind the Evesham course's $4.4 million, 27,700-square-foot clubhouse and millions of dollars more in golf-course renovations.

"We had something that was really an asset for our town, but it was underutilized," she said.

Seven years after its completion, the golf-course project is being used against the GOP's Addiego in her state Assembly campaign.

And the Township Council, controlled by a 4-1 Democratic majority, last month appointed a committee to investigate the golf course's finances - keeping a campaign promise made in the spring.

The panel will comb through golf-course bond deals and contracts and track the flow of money in and out of municipal accounts.

"What really lit my fire was when I found out they took money out of the open-space recreation fund to pay for golf-course debt," Mayor Randy Brown said. "So our kids playing athletics have been deprived of good facilities because of golf-course debt."

Democrats say the township faces devastating payments on bonds issued for the project, and they blame Addiego. Chris Fifis, a Democrat who is running a feisty Assembly campaign against Addiego, accused her of having "poor foresight," and said: "Dawn saddled the taxpayers with this debt."

Addiego was not solely responsible for the golf-course improvements; votes from the five-member council were required to approve spending and other actions. She does not, however, dispute that she took a major role in improving the course.

Before members of the new council voted to investigate the golf course, Addiego held a news conference outside Town Hall.

She said she was proud of her efforts "to turn around what was a struggling club, rife with corruption, and set it on the course to become a well-regarded golf facility and highly sought after banquet facility that will be a revenue generator for Evesham Township's recreation programs and its residents."

Addiego's connections to the golf course run deep.

She looked over the china and silverware for the catering hall. Her cousin worked there, her daughter's godfather had a catering contract there, and a named partner in her former law firm owned part of yet another catering contract there.

She said others on the town council looked over the china but joked, "I was most interested in it"; her cousin got the job through merit; she didn't really know her daughter's godfather when he got the catering contract; and her boss at the law firm invested in the catering contract after she left the council.

Addiego, now a Burlington County freeholder, said the golf course was falling apart when she became a councilwoman in 1993.

Fairways were obstructed by unpruned trees, sand traps were overgrown, drainage was poor all over, and buildings were deteriorating.

Her vision, she said, was to "put everything in to make this a great golf course and someday the excess funds will pay for the recreation programs in this town and not one child who wants to play sports will have to pay."

Between 1994 and 2001, the township issued a series of bonds for the project. In 2004, it issued $6.4 million in bonds to refinance the earlier bonds.

On that refinancing deal, debt payments will escalate over time. Now, they're $385,000 a year but escalate to $800,000 in 2010 and $1 million in 2013. Golf-course revenue to cover debt service and other expenses was at $695,000 last year.

There is a debt reserve fund that is expected to soften the blow, but the current mayor worries whether it will be enough.

Though the former council members said they wanted golf-course revenues used for recreation programs, critics say they did so at the expense of the golf course's financial stability.

When the golf course was turning a profit in the late 1990s, the township committee took $2.65 million out of it to avoid making unpopular property-tax hikes - even when it was clear its balances were shrinking, the critics say.

Between 1996 and 2000, the golf course's $1.5 million fund balance shrank to $150,000 after a succession of transfers to the general fund.

By 2002, the golf course was running at a deficit. In 2003, the township committee took $750,000 out of the township's open-space recreation fund to cover golf-course operations. A year later, they were so strapped for cash they refinanced the debt and are now trying to figure out how to pay it back.

The course also has been a source of fees for the politically connected.

On four of five bond deals, records show, the bond counsel was Capehart & Scatchard, a firm that contributes to candidates in both parties but that is best known in political circles because former Burlington County GOP chairman Glenn Paulsen is a partner. Paulsen said that in order to expand its bond practice, the firm hired an attorney who had long been doing Evesham's bond work.

"He brought the account with him," Paulsen said.

Others earning bond fees included Commerce Capital Markets and Commerce Bank, which served as a financial adviser, underwriter and escrow agent. Commerce founder and former CEO Vernon Hill was a well-connected Republican and the bank's former insurance subsidy is headed by Democrat George Norcross III.

The blue-ribbon committee investigating golf-course finances is expected to give its first report on Oct. 31 - six days before the Nov. 6 election.