Presidio County commissioners on Wednesday voted to eliminate funding for a county-owned golf course and park in Marfa after hearing pleas from locals to preserve the facilities’ budgets for at least another year.
County Judge Joe Portillo, the top local elected official, led the push to defund the facilities, saying the county needed to make “tough decisions” given its poor financial shape.
“At some point the answer can’t be ‘we can’t do away with it,’” Portillo said at a public meeting in Presidio. “We have to do away with some things.”
The votes to defund the facilities beginning Oct. 1, when the county’s next fiscal year begins, came at the end of a daylong meeting, during which commissioners were considering a proposed budget that did not initially include the cuts. The cuts were approved as revisions to the budget.
Commissioner Deirdre Hisler, whose precinct includes the golf course and park, urged Portillo and her fellow commissioners to fund the facilities for another year and give her time to turn their finances around.
On Thursday, Hisler told Marfa Public Radio she had “absolutely no intention of closing the gates” at either facility.
“Defunding does not mean shutting things down,” she said.
Hisler said she is shifting her attention now to working with private entities like the Marfa Golfing Association and the Los Yonke Gallos sandlot baseball team to shift electrical services into their names and raise funds to keep the facilities’ infrastructure operational.
“Parks and green spaces belong to the people, and I plan on making sure those are available until I can get some kind of a lessee in there,” she said.
According to numbers in Wednesday’s budget planning document, the county’s “north park” – which includes the golf course and Vizcaino Park – cost the county about $236,000 while bringing in almost $79,000 in revenue in FY 2025. Before the approved cuts, the budget for FY 2026 had anticipated about $289,000 in costs with just $74,000 in revenue.
Still, at Wednesday’s meeting, Hisler pointed to figures from the last few years showing the golf course’s revenue had gradually increased, and said she had already begun working on plans with the golfing association and other locals to modernize the decades-old course.
“The numbers are speaking toward a movement in the right direction,” she said.
Hisler and commissioner David Beebe, who also opposed the defunding effort, failed to convince their colleagues as the cuts were each approved by a vote of 3-2. The finalized FY 2026 budget, cuts included, was ultimately approved 4-1, with only Beebe voting against.
“We have to sacrifice something,” commissioner Margarito Hernandez said.
Portillo on Wednesday argued that the county government should not be in the business of running a golf course and suggested that a business investor or nonprofit could take over its operation. Beebe warned that if the county stripped funding to maintain the course in the meantime, it could “go fallow and eventually shut down.”
“This is an asset that once you lose it, you’ll never get it back,” he said.
Several Marfa residents and golf course supporters who made the hour-long drive to Presidio for the meeting described being blindsided by the defunding proposal.
“This is the first time we’ve ever heard about this,” said Yvonne Lujan, a Marfa resident who’s been actively involved in the course for years.
At times holding back tears, Lujan told commissioners that generations of Marfa residents have relied on the course as a community center. She described the various education fundraisers that local golfers have held at the course, saying they’ve raised thousands of dollars in scholarships for new college students in recent years.
“That course has done wonders for my family,” Lujan said. “At least give us a chance to turn things around.”
Portillo acknowledged and praised the community efforts, but insisted he didn’t think it should be run by the county anymore.
“It sounds like you guys have the passion to make this continue and probably make it a better place,” he said. “The bottom line for me is just the budget itself, looking at the financial health of the county.”
At Wednesday’s meeting, golf course supporters argued that the facility wasn’t just an asset for Marfa residents and that the nearby Fort Davis school district often used the course.
Fort Davis resident Caleb Taylor urged commissioners to consider the cultural importance of the course.
“There are people in Wranglers and boots that have been playing there for 40, 50, 60 years,” he said. “It’s about the only thing locals have left in a town of gentrification and economics changing all over the place.”
On Thursday, Hisler expressed concern with the way officials handled the defunding proposal, describing it as “hidden in a budgetary process” and only revealed to the full commissioners court in recent days.
Still, she said she was staying optimistic about the path forward for the facilities.
“I’m looking at the silver lining, and this could be a good thing for those two facilities,” she said. “Obviously, the county was struggling to run them at the level that they should have been at, I get that.”
Editor’s note: Yvonne Lujan is a former employee of Marfa Public Radio. David Beebe is a volunteer music program host at the station.
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