Editorials

OAKLAND — Lew F. Galbraith Golf Course has become one of the most expensive public golf course-related projects in Bay Area history. 

Total costs are fast approaching $30 million, of which nearly $20 million comes from public funds. And the project is not scheduled to be finished until late next year or early 2003. 

On Tuesday, the Oakland Port Commission unanimously approved the last official permit to rebuild Galbraith, which will be renamed Metropolitan Golf Links and will be located near the Oakland International Airport. 

The latest series of costs at Galbraith stem from unexpected complications associated with building a new golf course on top of an old landfill. 

Harding ESE, a contractor hired by the port, originally was to be paid $5.9 million to prepare the land for the new golf course, but the company’s bill has jumped significantly in the past 15 months. Harding’s bill now stands at $7.4 million, raising the total costs of preparing the site for the golf course to $12.648 million. The port, a public agency and semiautonomous department of the city, will pay all those costs. 

SAN FRANCISCO — Richard C. Blum, the husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has been appointed as Honorary Consul General of the new Mongolian Honorary Consulate General in San Francisco. 

Blum said his nomination came as a result of his interest in the Himalayan region. Blum is founder of the American Himalayan Foundation and also serves as honorary consul to the Kingdom of Nepal. 

The appointment was announced Wednesday in San Francisco by the Prime Minister of Mongolia, Nambar Enkhbayar. 

The main goal of the Honorary Consulate General will be to promote bilateral relations between Mongolia and the United States. 

Mongolia is a vast north Asian country. It peacefully abandoned its communist system in 1990 and has made the transition to a parliamentary democracy. The country’s development has been hampered by inadequate infrastructure, particularly in the energy, transportation, and communication sectors, according to the web site of the Embassy of Mongolia in Washington, D.C. 

The main Mongolian export products are mineral resources, metals, raw materials and consumer goods. The imports mainly comprise petroleum products, equipments and spare parts, vehicles, metals, chemicals, food and consumer goods.