Letters to the editor: South Mountain Golf Course is a valuable asset

South Mountain Golf Course is a valuable asset

To the editor:

Re: letter sent to Gov. Shapiro

My brother and I have spent the last 60 years building a family-oriented golf course, the South Mountain Golf Course (SMGC). We are the current lessee of SMGC and are very proud of how the residents of the surrounding area enjoy and support our golf course.

When we first leased the 47 acres in 1968, it was a farm and we harvested thousands of bales of hay from the land. There were a few golf holes that had existed but they were completely overgrown. From the start our goal was to build one of the best golf courses in the area, which we certainly have accomplished.

South Mountain Golf Course is special to area residents. It is the top-rated public golf course in the area (4 out 5 on GolfPass), out in the middle of nowhere, very affordable ($10 to walk 9 holes) and perfect for families, seniors, youth, handicapped and tourists.

Unlike other golf courses in Franklin County, it is fairly flat and easy to walk. In 2023, over 24,000 rounds of golf were played at SMGC. There are many leagues, events and charitable activities hosted by us.

Since 1995, when the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources was formed, they have wanted to close and destroy this golf course. As conservationists, they just cannot accept having a well-used golf course in a state forest. Conservationists traditionally believe that golf courses are a waste of resources. They have never supported or helped the golf course.

By their refusal to allow adequate signage and road maintenance, and the high lease costs (compared to Caledonia Golf Course), they have made their desire quite clear. DCNR has never provided any services in the last 30 years to help SMGC. Yet we have persevered and continued to develop and maintain a well-used state asset using our own finances.

We cannot understand why anyone would want to destroy this 1.5-million-dollar asset in Michaux Forest that costs the state nothing and produces revenue to the state.

DCNR recently published a state outdoor recreation survey. Golf was purposely ignored and not mentioned, despite about 1-million enthusiasts in Pennsylvania. This obvious omission demonstrates how DCNR feels about golf.

In the years of planning and study, DCNR never consulted with us, local residents, surrounding municipalities, Franklin County government or state legislators until after they had decided to destroy SMGC. The repurposing of SMGC came as a complete surprise to everyone.

We think you have witnessed the overwhelming public reaction to the closing of SMGC. How can a decision affecting so many be made without any input from the surrounding population?

No one challenges having a new visitor center, but everyone familiar with the area agrees that it doesn’t belong on South Mountain. And if DCNR is determined to increase traffic to South Michaux, why dismiss the existing 24,000 SMGC visitors?

There are alternatives on South Mountain, at Caledonia, at Pine Grove Furnace, and elsewhere in Michaux that allow for both the new Visitor Center and the continuing lease of SMGC. If they wanted to, DCNR could easily find a way to have both the new Visitor Center and the valuable and much-loved South Mountain Golf Course.

Please don’t ignore the wishes of the residents of the surrounding communities and Franklin County. Please direct DCNR to rise above their anti-golf prejudice and do what's right! SMGC is a valuable asset to Pennsylvania.

Dick George and Dave George

Fayetteville, Pa.

Trump wants legal immigration

To the editor:

Re: Response to James Griffin's letter to the editor on Sunday, July 21.

Trump wants legal immigration and Biden has allowed illegal immigration.

The first executive order on immigration signed by President Trump urges the government “to employ all lawful means to enforce the immigration laws of the United States.” President Trump’s second executive order is aimed at enhancing security along the southern border. It orders the construction of a wall between the United States and Mexico to curb unauthorized immigration. Trump’s most controversial executive order introduced a 90-day travel suspension for immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Biden signed executive action to reverse Trump's actions and allowed millions of immigrants to enter the USA illegally.

There was no need for a bipartisan bill on immigration. Biden just needed to repeal his original actions. Now we have terrorist, and criminals crossing the border everyday, putting all US citizens in harm's way.

Martha Sullivan

Hagerstown

Trump of course knows about Project 2025

To the editor:

As Ms. Sullivan wrote on July 21, “the Project 2025 document was created by Heritage Foundation.” The Heritage Foundation has publicly supported the former president, and Project 2025 is widely regarded as the “playbook” for a second Trump administration. As she maintains, the former president did indeed post that he “has no idea who is behind it.”

This is quite obviously incorrect. Many of those who wrote it held posts in Trump’s administration, and he most certainly knows them.

Perhaps his disingenuous statement was meant to allay the fears of those who have read the document and realize the dangerous plans contained in it. Of course, this same former president supposedly did not know who David Duke is, didn’t know about the Proud Boys, never met E. Jean Carroll, didn’t have sex with Stormy Daniels, and told more than 30,000 other lies while in office.

So now, he writes that he doesn’t know who created Project 2025. Either Trump is lying, again, or it is him, not Biden, that needs a cognitive test.

Tom Clemens

Keedysville

We need to know more about shooting at Trump rally

To the editor:

On July 13, 2024, Thomas Matthew Crooks fired an unknown number of bullets in the general direction of Trump. An AR-15 style weapon was used. An AR-15 can produce up to 1,300 foot pounds of force.

With that much power close to the head, there can be injuries beyond what is visible. One of the bullets is alleged to have grazed the tip of Trump's ear. That’s the information on the ear.

There was no press conference, no official statements, no report from the actual doctor who treated Trump after the shooting. Until we see the actual medical report from the hospital, this letter from “Candyman” Doc Ronny Jackson is meaningless.

Perhaps, we could get a second opinion from a real independent doctor, not from a politician and campaign surrogate who doesn’t even have a license to practice medicine. He says in his letter that Trump’s ear bled profusely. But not a drop on his pristine white collar? How is that possible?

If you’ve been around long enough to remember Reagan’s near assassination, you’ll also remember the total media frenzy that surrounded it. Reporter’s camped out in front of the hospital. Doctors and hospital staff gave numerous medical live conferences.

Did the media camp out in front of Trump’s Bedminister club? Are they demanding answers? Are they insisting on seeing medical reports? Where is our compliant corporate controlled news media? If it was Joe Biden who was shot at, do you in your wildest dreams imagine the media wouldn’t be screaming for real answers, now! The coverage would be without mercy. What is Joe Biden hiding?

The fact that we know more about Biden’s COVID diagnosis than we do about the assassination of a presidential candidate is absurd.

Patricia Taylor

Williamsport

Joe Biden put country before self

To the editor:

On July 21, Joe Biden did something Donald Trump would never dream of doing.

He put country before self.

James Griffin

Waynesboro, Pa.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Mail: Letters to the editor for Sunday, July 28