New Mayor Dan Horrigan and his cabinet have plenty to mull over when it comes to Akron’s Blue Ribbon Task Force findings.

The 58-page report, released in January, includes more than 75 suggestions for improving the city's finances and operations. Among them is a recommendation to unload two money-losing golf courses, which the task force advised could be offered to Summit Metro Parks.

Both the city of Akron and Summit Metro Parks declined to comment on the prospect of a deal. In an email, Summit Metro Park spokesman Nathan Eppink said the city has not made a proposal related to the 18-hole J. Edward Good Park or the nine-hole Mud Run, “nor have we had any formal discussions about (the city's) two courses.”

A county-owned golf course, however, is not without regional precedent. Cleveland Metroparks owns and operates eight courses. Summit Metro Parks is in negotiations to purchase the family-owned Valley View Golf Club on Cuyahoga Street in Akron, which would be the first course in its portfolio.

Without a “final, signed” contract on that deal, Eppink also refused to discuss Valley View – specifically, if the park district plans to operate a golf course there or if the land would be converted back to a more natural state and used as a passive recreation site. The latter is not unprecedented either.

In late 2012, Cleveland Metroparks bought the former Acacia Country Club in Lyndhurst, according to Metroparks CEO Brian Zimmerman, and turned the golf course into the 155-acre Acacia Reservation. There are other examples in Geauga and Lorain counties.

If Good Park and/or Mud Run will face the same fate – or if Akron will even consider selling one or both of the courses – is anyone’s guess. What’s certain is the courses are losing money and contributing, albeit subtly, to the city’s dwindling cash base.