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As the scheduled Oct. 1 closure date for Sligo Creek Golf Course approaches, a Montgomery County Council subcommittee on Thursday approved funding to keep the Silver Spring course open another year, leaving only a full council vote left to complete the course's stay of execution.

The Planning, Housing and Economic Development Committee voted 2-1 in favor of a $150,000 appropriation to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission's fiscal 2010 operating budget. The appropriation, proposed by County Executive Isiah Leggett, will be paid by the Park and Planning Commission, which owns the land, to the Montgomery County Revenue Authority, which operates the course.

The Revenue Authority is scheduled to back out of its lease for operating Sligo Creek Oct. 1 because it was ruled a financial drain on the county golf system.

A full vote from the county council will come Tuesday, with six votes required to pass the appropriation. The course would stay open until June 30, 2010, and in the meantime a task force of stakeholders would determine a long-term solution for the course.

"I don't think this course has to lose money," said Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park, who voted in favor of the appropriation.

He said there are multiple options "that will serve this course in the long run."

Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-at large) of Garrett Park also voted in favor of the appropriation. Councilwoman Valerie Ervin (D-Dist. 5) if Silver Spring and Councilman George L. Leventhal (D-at large) of Takoma Park sat in on the hearing and voiced support for the appropriation, as well as a draft resolution that would tweak Leggett's proposal for what happens after Oct. 1.

Under Ervin's resolution, the Sligo Creek Golf Course Task Force would come back before the council by Jan. 19, shortly after the council's winter recess. At that point, the task force would submit a report examining the costs, revenues, required capital improvements and potential partnerships for the course.

Most importantly, the task force must present ideas for the course that are self-sustaining and require no county subsidy to operate, or "justify ongoing cost to the county," the resolution says.

Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who cast the dissenting vote against the $150,000 appropriation, said that if the task force is going to meet with council in January, the council should only appropriate enough money to get to that point.

In tight budget times, Knapp said, it makes more sense to spend $50,000 and then see if more is needed in January.

"To appropriate $150,000 without a clear plan with what to do with it doesn't make sense," he said.

Knapp (D-Dist. 2), of Germantown, said he would broach the smaller appropriation with the council on Tuesday but expects there is enough support already for the $150,000 appropriation.

Meanwhile, the Revenue Authority has been negotiating with the Park and Planning Commission for an operating agreement past Oct. 1. With the $150,000, the course would be operated as it has been the past year and will still be staffed by the Revenue Authority, said its executive director, Keith Miller.

If the appropriation is rejected, the course will close as expected Oct. 1.

The Revenue Authority, signed a lease in 2006 to operate Sligo Creek and three other courses owned by Park and Planning. The lease contains a no-compete clause that prevents the Park and Planning Commission from operating Sligo Creek as a golf course.

Residents in attendance Thursday were not as loud and boisterous as they have been at past meetings, but donning their "Save Sligo Golf" shirts, were confident in advance of Tuesday's vote.

"We're supportive of any decision that allows us to have time to come up with a self-sustaining solution," said Karen Howland, president of Sligo Creek Golf Association Inc., a nonprofit that has raised $12,000 to save the course. "But it's an aggressive deadline."