The Muni Update
Aug 11, 2024
Good Morning,
Our maintenance staff has been busy with daily maintenance practices on the grounds along with planning fall projects. Clubhouse staff has been busy with golf leagues, daily golf, and events. Several of our employees will be leaving soon to go back to teaching school. I would like to thank each one of them for another great season. They do a great job and many of these employees have been working at The Muni for a lot of years. It's great to have staff return each season.
We hosted the C & B customer appreciation golf outing on Friday. This was an event for the local John Deere dealership to thank all of their customers. It was a nice turnout with golf being played on the front nine followed by dinner provided by C & B. This upcoming week we will be hosting the YMCA fundraiser on Friday, the JayCees membership event on Saturday, and a couples golf event on Sunday. It will be another busy week.
When the irrigation renovation began around our greens we expected we might see issues with existing pipe on the lateral lines. These lines have previously been under pressure only when the green station was running. Now they are under constant pressure since we have individual irrigation head control around the greens. It creates pressure on the pipes 24 hours a day instead of the 20 minutes of pressure when the lateral line was running.
This has produced some pinhole leaks at the seam where two 20 foot sections of pipes were glued when the original system was installed 25 years ago. The result has been small areas of saturated soil. These seams were removed and a fitting was installed in place to remove the leak. We have fixed six of these leaks this week to eliminate this problem.
We have also continued to work on valves where the diaphragms are filled with debris. Some of the debris issues are due to the flooding of the pumphouse and others are from normal wear and tear. The only remedy is to remove the diaphragms, clean them out, and put the valve back together. We still have a fair amount of these to continue work on and will address them on a daily basis.
Monday through Saturday we went through quite a few of our irrigation stations to determine if the spray patterns were adequate and that sprinkler heads were working properly. When the weather is hot and we go so long without moisture it quickly becomes apparent where we have issues with irrigation patterns. All of these repairs were completed as we went through each hole, station by station.
Overall most of the issues with the irrigation system have been addressed and repaired. The isolated dry areas on a couple of the greens continue to improve. Cooler weather has helped these spots recover but the process is slow. Rainfall would definitely help the entire golf course.
The golf course is hanging in there with the dry weather and previously warm conditions. The cool weather at night has helped the grass tremendously. Please reach out if you have any questions for me.
Brian C Mohr
Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer
101 W 5th Street
Spencer Municipal Golf Course
Spencer, Iowa 51301
712-260-5370