From Steve's Desk:

 After months of meetings and work on the CIP Golf Course Improvement study the County Council will be meeting on Tuesday, May 15^th in a work session to give each project sponsor 15 minutes to present their project.  Being a work session the Council will not take action on any of the projects at this meeting and no public comment will be taken.  However they are still accepting public comment and we believe it’s important that golfers and others who support this project send an email to Council – that address is countycouncil@lacnm.us.  At the end of the agenda the Council will begin the process of prioritizing the projects.  It is hoped that they may also set a date for a follow up meeting when they will determine the final prioritization and which projects to fund or if the decision to fund them all is made how they plan to do so. 

Despite the fact that no decisions will be made that night we are encouraging as many golfers who support this project to come out for this meeting as we believe a good showing will be important in the eyes of Council.  The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00pm, at Council Chambers adjacent to Ashley Pond.   

The total dollars that we’ve learned are available for these projects, during the next two year cycle, is approximately $27.5 million.  Of the most recent projects reviewed by the CIP committee the cost and preferred order of completion was as follows:

WR Civic Center                          #1                            $16,511.876m

Golf Course Improvements            #2                             $9,888,215m

Teen Center                                 #3                             $8,781,403m

Ashley Pond                                 #4                             $2,226,471m

Nature Center                               #5                            $4,742,217m

Ice Rink                                        #6                             $5,229,844m

I know everyone is anxious to hear about the clubhouse construction, but at this time we have no new information.  Bids are being reviewed by County staff and are ongoing.  When we have any new information or once a decision is made we’ll let you know. 

Our series of free one hour monthly clinics for all Pass and Punch Card holders will continue in May as we work on the important chipping and pitching aspect of the game.  The clinic is scheduled for Sunday, May 20^th at 3:00pm.  For those that are in need of this aspect of your game we encourage you to come out and pick up a few pointers to help you take some strokes off you game.  We hope to see you then. 

Maintenance Richard Matteson:

Greetings, 

Greens aerification went very well this past week with only minor interruptions.  I estimated we topdressed with 100,000 pounds of sand.  In the next few weeks, the maintenance staff will continue to aerify weak areas on the golf course including a few fairways.  Our tentative maintenance schedule for the next few weeks is:

Our routine maintenance schedule is as follows:

Fairway mowing                                 Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Greens mowing                                   Daily

Tee and approach mowing               Monday, Wednesday and Friday

Rough mowing                                   Daily

On May 7, we are planning on vertical mowing the greens and dragging the sand that will be brought to the surface. Every other Monday, we plan on either spiking the greens or doing a deep needle tine aerifying  of the greens.  This is all planned to enhance oxygen and water penetration. 

On the near horizon, I anticipate spraying the entire golf course to begin suppression of weeds.  Typically, the fall is the best time of year for weed control, however, we are going to take an aggressive approach this season to get a handle on the infestation of dandelions, knotweed, and other bothersome weeds. 

The irrigation system has seen a few mild hiccups this spring yet we are able to stay on top of irrigation needs thanks to Dale, Mike, and Eric taking care of leaks rapidly as they happen.  We experienced a few wires sliced as a result of fairway slicing, that noted, we now know where to avoid in the future as the practice of slicing and aerifying fairways is a much needed practice