Mineola

By 1940 the board had decided that all was not lost, so they voted to borrow $5,000.00 from J. W. Cage, Leonard Bruner, Mrs. Cora W. Dyer, and H. W. Meredith (all members) for the purpose of liquidating the club's indebtedness and raising sufficient monies with which to build a club-house. A contract was awarded to WC Little (a member only slightly in arrears) on his bid of $3,400.00 for a complete turn key job of building a new clubhouse. When Peck Collins learned that the building was not to have a fireplace, she was most unhappy. She consulted Mr. Little, who figured that a fireplace could be added for an extra $100.00. Accordingly, Peck took up a collection for that amount, and the clubhouse has a fireplace.

I quote a couple of House Rules as of the year 1940: “Any club member may have as his or her guest any non-member on payment of 25¢ per couple, provided that not more than 4 non-members are invited at any one time by any one member.” And, “all reservations of the clubhouse are to be paid in cash in advance.”

The matter of guests has gone through many phases. In 1941, any member who brought a guest to the club and failed to register such guest in the book provided for that purpose was subject to a fine of $1.00. A Mineola citizen could be a guest only once a month.

The club's 83 acres were leased (for the second time in history) to Thomas C. Vaughn at $4.00 per acre for the purpose of prospecting oil and gas.

In 1945, the club president and secretary were instructed to “contact J. O. Drew and ascertain whether he could and would accept the place as keeper, and if so, to make a trade with him accordingly, payment not to exceed $15.00 per week at present.”

In 1946, the following motion was made in a directors' meeting: “Now that the war is over, be it resolved that the club so notify all service members to begin payment of their dues.” The motion failed.

The board instructed Keeper Moore to be more diligent in the collection of “guest fees”; that he should properly ascertain at each gathering who were eligible and from whom fees should be collected, and to collect same.

On January 6, 1947, the following letter was sent:

“Dear Stockholder,

At regular directors' meeting in December, it was voted to call a membership meeting of stockholders of Mineola Country Club for Jan. 16, 1947 at 7:30 p.m.

The directors desire to know the feeling or opinion of members relative to increasing the dues above $2.00 per month.

Your presence is urgently desired.

T. A. Collins

T. B. Reed

The opinion of the members was “no”. At least, there is no clue to lead one to believe otherwise.

In 1948, a pipe was run from the keeper's house to the clubhouse for hot water.

Due to the inability to keep the diving board in repair, only one person was allowed on the board at any time. About mid-summer the city raised the water rate from 8¢ to 20¢ per 1000 gallons (and pressure was so low it took 2 days to fill the pool). The directors voted unanimously to close the pool.