Country club officially goes public, changes name to River’s Edge

By JOHN BRONZ
The Alpena Country Club have been sold to a group of investors, mainly made up of former country club members, for $1.25 million.

The River’s Edge Golf Club, the name of the group of investors as well as the course’s new name, had approved the measure back in February, but had to wait on the approval from the state of Michigan on the transfer of ownership.

Other than having a new name, the biggest change the Alpena community will see is that the course is now completely open to the public, with walking green fees starting at $29.

Also, former Alpena Country Club members will receive a 10 percent discount for this season membership at River’s Edge.

Going from private to public wasn’t easy, but financial problems forced the group’s hand.

“We’ve got a lot of hope for the future and obviously last year was a difficult year with economic issues in club and the Michigan economy,” said former country club member and one of the investors, Phil Straley. “We couldn’t continue the way it was.”

Straley said the Alpena Country Club wouldn’t have been able to survive on its own so the group of investors took over and plan to continue the tradition of the country club while welcoming new customers.

“There were some frustrations (with the club going public), but the opposition was minimal,” said Straley.

The club’s focus is offering memberships to the public. A family, singles, junior family and junior memberships are going to be offered to the Alpena community.

“We welcome the public with open arms and it’s enjoyable to see a lot of new faces,” said Straley.

River’s Edge offers everything the country club did in the past, and soon will have a Web site available at www.riversedgealpena.com. The group plans to open around mid-April, or when weather permits.