Rankin ISD Prop B includes renovating a golf course

RANKIN, Texas (KOSA) -After yesterday’s election, one of the propositions for Rankin ISD includes renovating their golf course for student athletics and for the general public.

Even though Rankin ISD Proposition B did pass yesterday, the school district still has some obstacles to go through.

One of which is the condition of the field that they plan to upgrade.

Rankin ISD Superintendent Samuel Wyatt, says the goal of this golf course is to bring back a golf team to Rankin, as well as starting up a cross country team.

They also want to renovate this course so that rankin residents can have something to do, but before they can purchase the land from Upton county, they first need to figure out how they’re going to fix their water issue and maintain the course in good condition.

“We talked about a joint project with the county and Rankin ISD, which will be mutually beneficial to the community and the school district, and then also with our tax base being what it is. We can pass a bond and do some cool renovations at a minimal cost to our tax payers,” said Wyatt.

Superintendent Wyatt, says that he wants this golf course to be a collaboration between the school district and Upton county.

At the moment, the golf course isn’t in the best conditions, but one of the maintenance workers said it’s actually in very good condition at the moment, because of the rainfall that Rankin recently had and because they just installed a new sprinkler system.

Superintendent Wyatt says that he’s thinking of the long-term effect and he wants a water system to make sure that Rankin has a golf course that everyone can use.

Wyatt says even though they managed to pass over 120 million dollars in bonds, the tax rate has actually lowered.

“This year, our tax rate is a dollar and seven, and we’ll maintain that tax rate, which is the lowest tax rate we’ve had in 13 years. So even though we passed 123 million dollar bonds, our tax rate lowered by six and a half pennies. From a dollar thirteen to a dollar seven and we should be able to pay off the entirety of the bond within five years with our existing tax rate,” said Wyatt.

Now the first stage before drawing out the design of this new golf course is to find water supply to keep the golf course in good condition.

Wyatt says that if they’re not able to do that, then they will not purchase the land from the county and the golf course will be maintained as it is.

Another reason that Wyatt wants to bring back a golf course in good condition is because of the success that Rankin had with winning state championships leading back to the 1950′s.

They also plan to have a venue on the golf court to host school events like dances or events for the community to come out to.

If they are able to have a solid foundation to maintain the golf course in condition, they plan to have a design within the next 6 to 8 months, and once they break ground, they expect the project to take another 18-24 months.

Copyright 2022 KOSA. All rights reserved.