Council passes motion on bids for golf course

Ways to improve the 83 acre Hillside Golf Course were discussed at the city council meeting on May 14.

Andy Staples of the Staples Group made a presentation about the golf irrigation project to the council members that showed various options to update the lake and pump system.

The presentation included the irrigation system in four areas: The water delivery system, lake size and location, head layout/final acreage and master plan items.

Staples said that the majority “of our work was spent trying to identify the base case scenario and sticking to that initial $1.2 million budget.” At some point they had a change, a potential add to the budget of $300, 000.

Currently, the golf course has a well pump that pumps water on a low pressure, fills the lake and then the lake takes it out with the pump station and then sends it out onto the golf course. The pump station and the lake were identified as the problem. Staples went on to say that the low-flow pump that fills the lake is actually in very good shape.

Option A discussed was to basically keep everything “as is” which Staples explained is the traditional lake and pump system. He said this is where you have a lake, you add a new pump station and keep the low-flow well and then broadcast the water out to the golf course.

Option B is the entire opposite, according to edvaid, which is to eliminate all the lakes do a direct feed because there are two “really good-sized wells that actually have enough capacity to pump onto the golf course to handle the irrigation needs. And then this idea of why we would move water twice; actually pump it from a well out of the ground and then again out of the lake. We really looked hard at that.”

Staples went on to explain that there were a couple of alternatives to those options.

Alternative B essentially is taking the well pump idea and a direct tie-in and addressing what one of the major issues on the irrigation design is: Elevation. One of the things that started to prohibit the idea of tying in entirely to a direct feed well was that they have an upper zone and a higher pressure. So they came up with the idea of a tie-in from the wells and a small booster pump.

Alternative C is a hybrid of all of them. It has one direct tie-in with one big well keeping the low-flow well as is and then adding a small lake to handle some of these pressure issues. Because the bigger pumps aren’t showing a very good ability to do is to handle some of the low flows that the golf course has to go through when only one, two or three heads; big pumps aren’t needed to do that. This is one of the reasons that the engineers identified a need for a small pump station.

Staples recommended a larger lake with a pump station at hole number three. Staples said that this was the most cost-effective solution.

He went on to explain how to handle the lake that is going to hold the water that is going to the irrigation system.

There were four alternatives discussed.

One: To keep the lake essentially “as is,” retrofit it and make it safer, cut back the banks and reline it, keep it the same size. This option is the least-costly.

Two: To keep the existing lake open while new one is being built; basically make one lake for larger flows.

Three: Create one big lake it actually has to be two individual lakes because of the permitting in Nebraska restricts the total size of individual lakes so in order to get the actual amount of storage they want they have to break it into two lakes which would end up having a pipe interconnect that would share the storage. This option three kind of conforms to what was identified in the master plan.

Four: A hybrid between two and three. Only one lake but a redesigned hole; eliminate one lake and move the lake closer to the green. Basically do one smaller sized lake but increased slightly from existing sized-lake, line and edge it, move it closer to the third green. Keep existing lake open until it’s necessary or until they are able to close the other lake. A light step up from the lowest-cost option, which was retrofitting the existing lake.

Staples said that the tees at Hillside “are in dire need of some re-leveling and reconfiguring.”

Cost estimates for improvements were given which included: Re-grass fairways, $105,000; rebuild tees, on the low end $137, 500 and $196,500 on the high end; fix hole number two $90, 000; hole number two tee complex with cart path, $13,200; bunkers, $4,500; add irrigation for existing turf, $9,646 per acre.

They are planning to structure the bid to add alternates and to be able to pick and choose; to have flexibility; to be able to write the proposal to the bidders to either do everything all at once or be able to take things out.

Chuck Christensen, with Hillside Golf Course, said that the pumps are going down and should be replaced. He added that it would be cheaper to replace the pumps than to try to keep them maintained. He said that the pumps went down again at 3:00 a.m. that morning and each time that this happens, someone has to go get things running and they are paid overtime for doing this. They are burning up. “It is going to be a chore to get that pump station to work all summer long,” Christensen said.

Christensen went on to say “If some little kid were to fall into that lake, there is absolutely no way he could get out if nobody was around. There could be a cart fall in.” He added that the lake is caving in towards the number three fairway and that “we need to do something with that lake as soon as we can.”

He added that when they have 240 junior golfers on the course, the lake is a scary issue.

Roger Gallaway asked if the chosen location was the ideal location for the lake; are there other locations that might help the system be more efficient.

The designers looked at three or four locations and one there was a better one, but while working with the engineer, they found out that the state isn’t allowing more lakes to be built with a dam over three or four feet. Other possible issues precluded other locations that were considered.

The Hillside representatives liked the hybrid option best.

Gary Person said that he thinks that the mayor was on board with the middle cost option. But he added, once they “turn this project loose, we’re all going to have to live with the end result of ‘where’s the money coming from.’ ”

Person added, “We have to look at a 15-year-bond as opposed to a 10-year-bond to make it all work. We have the ability in the budget to do it, but with any shortfall you are going to have to have a safeguard there.”

Christensen said there is a golf development fund that is about $20,000 per year. Part of the green fees and part of the memberships go to that golf development fund which has gone to improvements o0f the golf course. He said that they can allocate that for how many years to offset what they are asking for.

Christensen agreed with Person when he said that by doing that, their hands would be tied moving forward and they couldn’t do improvements.

Joe Arterburn asked if the $1.2 million that was budgeted comes from sales taxes.

Person explained that this was a projection made when the sales tax vote was put out. They feel that this is the average over the 10 years plus factoring in some growth in the community, they figured everything by percentages rather than a dollar amount, over 10 years they would generate probably $10 million.

There are factors that might enhance this, Person added, such as if congress internet sales in place, any kind of growth that the community experiences, any additional retail that is attracted to the community, construction projects that bring workers and materials in.

Person said that this may become a 15-year-project. At the end of 10 years, the voters have to be asked to renew the sales tax and that these decisions have to be weighed out.

Gallaway asked if there is a difference in operating costs between the options.

Christensen said that saving the overtime alone is going to save money. Someone was up there almost every day in the early morning hours to “babysit that system.”

Staples added that the current pump isn’t designed to do what it is being asked to do and that is the reason why there are problems.

A motion was made and passed for option number two with alternates one and two to go out for bids.

Once the bids are in, it will ultimately be approved and matched up to what the financing options are.

Andy Staples is a design professional and the Staples Group has been awarded the design contract for the golf irrigation project. The Staples Group did the master plan one year ago and has a good idea where the improvements should be made with the current system, according to Person.