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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGolf Board - Minutes - 07/17/2002City of Fort Collins Cultural, Library, and Recreational Services Golf Board Minutes: Regular Meeting of July 17, 2002 (Revised 8/5/02) Council Liaison to the Board: Councilman Bill Bertschy Staff Support to the Board: Jerry P. Brown, Manager of Golf at 221-6350 and Patty Carroll, Administrative Aide at 416-2265 Call Meeting to Order: The meeting was called to order by Vice Chairperson David Johnson at 7:30 p.m. Agenda Review: Policy Changes Regarding Boards and Commissions was added to Agenda. Items of Note: Chairperson Bill Rutledge called and said he would not be able to attend the meeting ... Dave Johnson commended the courses for being in such good shape. Approval of Minutes: On a motion by Mike Sanders, seconded by Claire Nelms, the Board voted unanimously (6:0) to approve the Minutes of the June 19, 2002 Regular Meeting. Note: Manuel Jimenez arrived at approximately 7:40 p.m., and Larry Buckendorf arrived shortly thereafter. Update on Capital Projects Collindale Clubhouse: Everything is going well. The project is on time and budget. Structural steel columns were installed this week. We are very pleased with the project. SouthRidge Projects: RC Heath won the bid for the Cart Storage building. Their bid is approximately $4,000 under the estimate. Construction should begin in early August ... The parking lot project may be postponed until the spring of 2003... The homeowners will soon meet with us on the #5 tee restroom project. The photo simulations Park Planning created will be shown to the homeowners so they can see how the project could look. Canada Goose Management Discussion on Canada Geese was tabled in April to the July meeting to see what occurred at the U. S. Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service public input meeting on May 29 in Denver. The Federal Government goes through a long process. Hearings on the Resident Canada Goose Management Draft Environmental Impact Statement (E.I.S.) were held all over the country and the Feds take all the comments and put them together, then make a final E.I.S. If that passes, then the Director of Fish and Wildlife will have to approve the action, then it goes to the Secretary of Interior for final approval. It appears that the State's Division of Wildlife Golf Board Minutes July 17, 2002 (Revised 8/5/02) Page 2 (D.O.W.) will get the job of monitoring the rules. Canada Geese are not necessarily a high priority to the D.O.W. Possibly by the next season everything will be adopted. Claire Nelms wanted to know if the geese would be taken off the endangered species list. Jerry said this would probably happen. A longer hunting season may be scheduled or possibly more geese will be allowed to be bagged. Also the D.O.W. may allow for "geese round -ups" for food bank purposes. Until the new rules are adopted, we can still harass the geese. Doug Evans, Golf Course Superintendent at Collindale, currently uses a laser to harass them, but the laser won't work when they're not flying. We can't use a dog between April 1 and July 31. The D.O.W., potentially, would like to use Fort Collins as an experimental area for their new rules. The decision to do this probably has to go through the City Manager and City Council. Jerry also noted that State Law covers the health hazard issue. In Larimer County, it's up to the Health Department to make the decision, and the Health Department has ruled Canada Geese droppings are not a health hazard. Mike Sanders wanted to know if there are nests on the courses. Doug says there are, though some are hidden. The Board will probably again take up this topic next year after the Feds and State D.O.W. issue their rules. Until then, Staff will continue to legally harass the geese. Policy Changes Regarding Boards and Commissions Jerry distributed a memo he received this afternoon and he mentioned some of the various changes from City Council on Policy's for Boards and Commissions. He requested Board members to look them over for potential future discussion. Frank Blanco asked if Council had changed Board terms to three years. Jerry said Council went back to four-year terms. He did say that if a Board Member was appointed to a vacancy for more than twenty-four months, the Board Member could only apply once for reappointment. If the Member served less than twenty-four months, they could apply twice. Jerry also said when a Board Member votes "no" on an issue, we now have to document the reasons for the "no" vote(s). In addition the Board needs five members at a meeting to constitute a quorum. If we need to change our Bylaws we will do so at a future meeting. Other Business • Lauren DeRosa thanked Collindale Golf Professional Jim Greer for the successful City Men's and Women's tournaments. She said the courses are in great condition. She also complimented SouthRidge Golf Professional Dale Smigelsky on how smoothly play went at SouthRidge. Lauren then said she's heard some women are disturbed as to why so few women play. Claire Nelms says there aren't that many women playing tournament golf, and she said there are always excuses why women won't play in tournaments. Lauren also said she heard there wasn't enough advertising of the women's event, and that entry forms were hard to find. Jerry said the tournament was mentioned in The Coloradoan at least nine times. Lauren said there was no mention on the City Golf Web Site and suggested the entry form be included on the Golf Web Site next year. Jerry agreed that we could do that, and said he'd also try to include tournament information with the Utility Billing Statements next year. Claire says women's leagues do not play in flights here. Larry Buckendorf asked if Lauren could make herself available to Women's Associations to explain about flights. Golf Board Minutes July 17, 2002 (Revised 8/5/02) Page 3 • Larry Buckendorf said the City Tournament was great. He said Collindale is great, but also wanted to know what is wrong with the greens at SouthRidge. He played SouthRidge today and he mentioned greens 1, 2, 4, and 8 seem to be scarified. He wants to know if something was done to the greens to cause the problem, and he would like a response from the Superintendent. He also said the sand traps are hard and he said the sand at SouthRidge has not been good for two years. Claire Nelms said the sand at Collindale is great. Jerry said he will look into it and he will respond to Larry's complaints/concerns. • Frank Blanco asked what the status is on the sidewalk at Collindale. Jerry again told him that we were required to build a sidewalk in order to get the permit for the Clubhouse Project. Jerry said former Board Member Byrd Curtis may write a Letter to the Editor of The Coloradoan as he feels he is not getting any satisfaction from City officials. Frank wants to know if citizens can go to Council and express dissatisfaction. Jerry said yes. Larry Buckendorf mentioned there is a procedure for obtaining a variance. He thinks we can ask for a variance for the sidewalk along Horsetooth. Jerry said Larry is basically right, but from Jerry's perspective this will not be granted. Two reasons are that we as the City need to follow the same rules other developers have to follow, and the second reason is the City does not fight against itself in public. Larry says a development will go in and ask for variances through the Planning Commission, and go to Council if necessary. He says we will not have staff support on this issue. If the Board chooses to appeal, they will have to leave Jerry out of it. Jerry will only support the Board as a staff resource. Mike Sanders said we previously discussed whether this sidewalk is a bad decision, and we also expressed our concern about the cost of this sidewalk. He feels the City has potentially breached an agreement with golf by requiring a sidewalk. Jerry said there is no written agreement and there is no document for not having a sidewalk. He also said there was no compensation paid to Golf for the Horsetooth Road Expansion 15 years ago, and the curb line/property line was established after the fact. Jerry said that the sidewalk has to be built for pedestrians and connectivity, and a fence built to protect pedestrians, bicyclists, cars, etc. from errant golf balls. Jerry said fencing or netting would then remove the liability issue in theory. We are required to provide multi -modal transportation services. Lary feels we need to study this issue further and made a motion, seconded by Frank Blanco, that we convene a work session (or Special Meeting) in the near future to discuss the issue. The motion passed by a 7:1 vote with Mike Sanders voting no. Mike voted "no" as he would rather see us fight to have the sidewalk funded by the City and feels it would be better and more fruitful than simply opposing the sidewalk. Jerry said the Chairperson can schedule a work session (or Special Meeting) and the meeting has to be posted at least 24 hours in advance. Mike wants to have someone at the meeting who can come up with options. • Jerry said the historic gas station being stored at SouthRidge was sold by bid to Fun Fortress who paid $8,333. He thinks the building will be moved out by next week. Golf Board Minutes July 17, 2002 (Revised 8/5/02) Page 4 • Jerry said construction of the Lemay Avenue widening project is planned for February, 2003. It doesn't appear that the road will cut too much into the 14t" fairway. The road still has a curve. Jerry explained that we will hopefully be building a berm with a maximum height of 15 feet. On top of the berm will be at least a 20 foot net. This will be golf s liability. • Jerry asked if anyone had any questions on the watering issue. He explained that we hopefully have enough raw water available to get us through the season, but we can't use all of it due to the new usage restrictions and our on -site water storage limitations. We will continue to fully water greens, tees, and most fairways everyday except Monday's as long as we have raw water, although we will water greens and tees daily. • The revenue situation has not changed. We're still down approximately 4% on average. Jerry doesn't know if this will improve. He thinks the reasons are due to heat, economy, bad weather in the first quarter, and 9/11 fall out. Manny Jimenez asked if we could offer incentives in order to attract players. Jerry said maybe. Adjournment On a motion by Lauren DeRosa, seconded by Grant Sherwood, the Board voted unanimously (8:0) to adjourn at 9:12 p.m. Meeting Attendance Board Members Frank Blanco Lary Buckendorf Lauren DeRosa Manuel Jimenez David Johnson Claire Nelms Mike Sanders Grant Sherwood Respectfully submitted, Patty Carroll Administrative Aide Staff Jerry P. Brown Patty Carroll Doug Evans Jim Greer Kevin Wilcox