Editor:

I’m writing to let you know that I will join the ranks of the retired on Wednesday. It has been my privilege to care for the ear, nose and throat needs of the people of this region for the past 11½ years.

It is disappointing to me that the Longwood Golf Course plans to close only one month later, on June 30. I enjoy playing there and was looking forward to doing so in retirement, as do so many others here in Farmville. It is a mystery to me why the university would want to lose the income it derives from the golfers to offset the cost of maintaining the grounds of the course, which it will continue to do when it closes the course to golfers. Why close it before another use is identified and the land is needed for alternate uses? Why not allow the many people who now enjoy the grounds to continue to do so until it is time to use it for something else? Why alienate all these people?

The reasons given by the administration for the closing ring hollow.

They suggest there is another agenda behind the closing. What that agenda is is open to speculation. What is not open to speculation is that the many different groups of people who love the Longwood Golf Course are hurt and angry about this unilateral, insensitive and economically stupid decision.

I am disappointed that, as it now stands, Longwood Golf Course will not be there for me in my retirement. I and many others hope the university will rethink this ill-considered decision before it is implemented.

Dr. Stephen Goldberger

Farmville