News

Good Morning,

 

The weather starts to turn around today and the upcoming week which should create some great fall golf conditions. We have a scheduled golf tournament Sunday, November 9, which will be weather dependent. The forecast keeps going back and forth for next weekend but a decision will be made on Friday in regard to the event.

Staff has continued to work on our landscaping renovation project. It was necessary to remove all of the landscaping blocks from hole #5 due to all the damage. The area still needs clay soil removed then we will start building the new landscape in place. We hope to have this completed early in the week.

Landscaping beds on the remaining 17 holes have been rebuilt and the majority of plant materials have been removed. Black soil has been added to six of these areas and we will finish the remaining beds this week. It has been a lengthy process but the end result will be more aesthetically pleasing to the golfer's eye. 

The last step of the landscaping project, this fall, is to lay new sod around the perimeters of each bed. The new sod will be delivered on Tuesday and staff will start this process. There are also several areas in our fairways that will be repaired and new sod will be placed to help eliminate standing water in the future.

Our granite tee signs did not get very much attention this past week due to weather conditions. This upcoming week the two signs by the practice green will be painted and one final coat of paint will be done on hole #18. This has really helped bring the tee signs back to life visually and will go very nice with the landscape project.

I went around the golf course to conduct a detailed tree inventory of different varieties that need to be removed. There are 45 trees with the majority being ash trees. The Park Department is going to assist us with the removal process which will begin in another week or so. Trees will be removed, hauled away, stumps ground out, and black soil and seed added to the areas.

Staff started pruning the red twig dogwood shrubs on holes #14 and #15. Hedge trimmers were used to cut the bushes down to a height of 3-4 feet. Next we used the chainsaws to cut these bushes down to a more manageable height of 2-3 feet. This will allow us to maintain these easier in the future. We should complete this project this coming week and haul away the branches.

Our mowing practices have subsided quite a bit in the past couple of weeks. We raised the height of cut on our greens mowers to 5/32" and will be mowing them only a couple of times this week. Fairways and tees will be mowed one more time and that will be it for the season. With the falling leaves we continue to run the rough units around the course to keep things under control and visible for golf balls.

 

When I was young my grandfather once told me a story about his good friend that was running for city council. The day after voting his friend came to him and was frustrated that he lost by one vote. He thanked my grandfather for his support and that he could always count on him. My gramps told me how horrible this made him feel because he had forgotten to vote. Please take the time to vote on Tuesday at the election. 

 

Please enjoy the remainder of the weekend sunshine with a few smiles. It's shaping up to be a beautiful day. Let me know if there are questions or the need for additional information on a topic. I will not be at the city council meeting on Monday evening because I am teaching an EMT class at the fire station.