Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

FORT SIMPSON (Jul 03/98) - If you are looking for Ken Brown in the next few months, try the golf course. That's where you'll be likely to find Ken Brown, but he won't be working, he'll be golfing.

After a year-and-half as president of the Seven Spruce Golf Course, and a key role in the founding of the course in the early 1990s, Brown announced last week that he was stepping down from office.

Fort Simpson's Pat Rowe is acting president for the time being, Brown said.

"After seven years, I needed more time to golf," the former president said in an interview. "I needed more time to myself."

Brown heaped praise on the thousands of volunteer hours that local residents have put into making sure the golf course became a reality.

He also said that are golfers collectively owe a big thank-you to the local contractors who have donated time and money to build the course and keep it maintained.

"I'll never forget when Joe Mercredi said 'Look out at the Papal overflow site,' so I did," Brown said when asked how the course came to be. "So I did and I saw a golf course there in my mind."

"We called a public meeting and 20 people showed up. In the meantime, about 50 people told we'd never have a course here. Well, we now have a pretty good one."

Construction of Seven Spruce Golf Course got under way in 1991 with golfers first teeing off in 1993.

Brown said the course now has a strong board of directors and this bodes well for the future.

Plans to expand the course to nine holes are well past the discussion stage.