With clubhouse demolished, Hempstead to invest in Lido Beach golf course's greens

Lido Golf Club's clubhouse met the wrecking ball this summer after the Town of Hempstead decided the catering hall space wasn't worth renovating. 

The town plans to pave over the former events venue in Lido Beach to add 20 to 30 parking spots for the facility's 18-hole golf course, according to Town Supervisor Donald X. Clavin Jr.

“We didn't need that facility, we're not rebuilding it," Clavin said in an interview. "My team is focusing more on rehabbing and getting the golf course back to prime condition."

The town razed the facility, which is next to Long Beach Middle School, on Aug. 23.

Now a chain-link fence surrounds mounds of dirt where the structure once stood. Golfers are being served by temporary trailers and the town has no plans to build permanent structures to replace them, Clavin said. 

Previously, a concessionaire had operated the catering hall and golf course for two decades. But town officials decided to take over operations when that agreement ended in 2017 and they evicted the vendor, Double Eagle Golf.

The vendor sued the town that year, arguing the town owed the company $776,000 for repairs made to the golf course after Superstorm Sandy. Then the town countersued, alleging the operator let facility fall into disrepair.

The parties settled in 2021, with the town agreeing to pay the company $85,000, Newsday previously reported.

Town officials and Double Eagle Golf had reached the same settlement in 2019, but former Democratic Town Supervisor Laura Gillen objected because the vendor had paid nearly $1 million to a consulting firm once headed by Nassau Republican Chairman Joseph Cairo, Newsday previously reported.

Cairo, who consulted for Double Eagle on business decisions and transactions, said previously that he had no involvement with the golf course after 2014 and wasn't part of the legal dispute.

In April, Hempstead town board members voted to hire Woodbury-based D & B Engineers and Architects for a contract of up to $322,100 to do an analysis of the clubhouse and create a plan to rehabilitate it.

Clavin, a Republican, said the town wanted to find out if it was feasible to modify the existing building, but learned doing so “was going to be a significant investment.”

The Hempstead supervisor added: “I'm in the business of investing in the golf course, not a catering hall."

Clavin didn't provide an estimate for the cost of renovating the former structure. Town spokesman Greg Blower said in an email that the consultant's study hadn't been completed and that the town spent about $25,000 on the contract.

But new investment in the golf course already has begun, according to town officials.

Last year the town built a new $600,000 structure to house golf carts and Hempstead officials said they're planning to spend $2 million to $3 million to upgrade the golf course's irrigation system.

Clavin said work on the irrigation project is expected to begin next year and take two years to complete. The project will include building water tanks to prevent salt water from getting into the irrigation system.

Hempstead's supervisor said he wants to make the golf course “more beautiful” with an “investment long term that'll prove beneficial to anybody who plays golf down there.”