Additional golf course work approved

Proposed work which would add-on to the irrigation and improvement projects currently underway at Hillside Golf Course was cause for some debate at Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Work on a new reservoir, new building construction, a new irrigation system and pump station started last fall and is slated to begin again this week. The city hopes the work will be completed by the end of May or beginning of June.

The price tag for work currently approved on the course is around $1.5 million.

City staff, along with those at the golf course, asked the council to approve additional work to replace the area previously occupied by a pond with grassy hollows as well as to remove an old line of trees and replace them with grassy hollows as well.

“We have an opportunity to do some additional things that are called for in the long range plan and this is the ideal time to put the grass hollows in, prior to the time the irrigation system is in,” said city manager Gary Person.

The row of old, wind damaged cedar trees which the city would like to remove is located between holes 7 and 15. The pond, which will be filled in, was located along hole 5. If the city were to remove the trees without adding any features in their place it would take away a penalty.

“If you’re gonna remove the trees, you have to replace it with something that also creates a challenge for a golfer to steer the ball in the right direction or pay the price as a result of it,” Person said.

Staples Golf and Design, which designed the irrigation and other improvements, offered to complete the work in addition to its current contract for $19,000. The city had a contingency fund of around $90,000 for any additional work that might be needed, as well as to take care of unforeseen costs. There is still around $70,000 remaining in that fund, some of which could be used for this work, which city staff recommended.

Some citizens did voice concern about removing the trees, but the city plans to replace them eventually with clumps of trees in strategic locations.

“The whole idea is to follow the master plan as best we can to continue to implement changes in the future,” Person said.

Councilman Mark Nienhueser commented that these additional proposed changes should be made now, because it will be much more costly to pursue them in the future.

Councilman Joe Arterburn wondered why this portion of the master plan wasn’t designed into the original irrigation project. Person answered that the city was concerned about additional unforeseen costs that haven’t yet emerged and are unlikely to now that the project is around 50 percent complete. A large amount of the contingency fund was set aside in case the contractors had to remove rock during construction, but this never occurred.

Arterburn commented that just because the extra money was there, it didn’t mean the city should spend it. Nienhueser answered that the cost would be exponentially more if the city waited to complete these changes in the future.

In response, Arterburn questioned how many more add-ons the city would want in connection with this phase of golf course improvements. Person answered that this was the last of them.

The overall cost of this project, already bonded for around $1.5 million, was set to be funded by 12 percent of the new half percent local sales tax. Collection of these funds began in July 2013. The city conservatively predicted this tax would collect around $1.2 million in 10 years for the golf course.

“I guess one of my concerns is when we sold the sales tax option that was 12 percent or projected at $1.2 so now we’re at $1.5 and climbing,” Arterburn said.

Sidney mayor Wendall Gaston clarified that this addition to the irrigation project would come out of money already allocated to the golf project.

“Doing it now, it just seems likes we keep spending and spending over and above the $1.2 that we said,” Arterburn said.

He added that refraining from completing this project now probably wouldn’t stop anyone from using the golf course.

“I’d rather not spend the money, I think and hang on to it for something else,” Arterburn said.

Nienhueser disagreed.

“I think it’d be penny-wise and dollar foolish to not do it now,” he said.

Completing this project later, after the irrigation work is finished, will be detrimental, he said. Going back in with trucks to move dirt after the course is re-seeded would cause damage, he added.

“It’s a matter of reallocating what we’ve got budgeted or what we’ve approved for this change order, the way I see it,” Nienhueser said.

The city has already spent a large amount of money on the golf course, Arterburn said which only a small percentage of the population uses.

“You have to worry about the taxpayer side of it, I guess,” Arterburn said.

Nienhueser countered that the city doesn’t know what percentage of the public uses the golf course or the ball fields at the park, which create no revenue. The golf course pays for most of its own expenses, while many of the parks and other similar features in the community create no revenue, he pointed out.

This additional agreement between Staples and the city replacing the pond and line of trees with grassy hollows was accepted by the council with four votes in favor and Arterburn voting against it.