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HomeMy Public PortalAbout2017McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for February 15, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Roger Snodgrass, Paul Stover, Lynne Edwards -Swanson, Ken Stearns A motion was made by Ken to accept the January minutes. Lynne seconded Ken's motion. The minutes were approved. Erin addressed the committee about the current website and ways to improve it. She felt we could put out a better product and also save money by looking at different servers. She said her current favorite was "Civic Plus". She said she would continue her research, and she would keep us informed. Erin asked for some wish list items from the committee. Some ideas included the following: easily changeable pictures, easy scheduling of tee times, restaurant menu, and simplicity of use. Eric's Report: The crew has been busy painting in the clubhouse. The Boise Golf show went well. Spokane's show is this coming weekend. Eric and Erin have been working together to streamline marketing. Parts of the clubhouse roof had to be shoveled. The greens were checked for potential damage. They seem to be holding up well; so far there is no evidence of ice damage. Equipment grinding is mostly done. Eric said he is working on a plan for cart path repair. The current number one priority is completion of the practice green. Allan was not present to give his report. Roger informed the group that the city would like to get a real estate agency to handle the advertising for future restaurant management. That search will begin very soon. Eric said the holdup with Allan's contract revolves around electric billing and how to separate the restaurant area from the golf area. Roger gave attendees a handout summarizing the "Golf Course Committee Annual Report to the McCall City Council". The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for March 8, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. 17, Roger Snodgrass GCAC Chairman McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for March 8, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Roger Snodgrass, Paul Stover, Lynne Edwards -Swanson, Ken Stearns, Allan Morrison (via phone) A motion to accept the February minutes was made by Ken. Lynne seconded Ken's motion. The minutes were approved. Eric's Report: The golf -show season has come to a close. Overall, attendance and interest was good. We have finished painting the molding in the clubhouse. The crew is continuing to work on keeping the cart paths and parking lot clear of snow. As the snow starts melting, the greens are becoming more of a concern. We will be watching them closely. We will start work on finishing the remodel of the practice green as soon as the weather permits. The goal is to bring in a complete crew by mid April. We would like to aerate the greens before the course opens. Allan's Report: The hiring of restaurant and clubhouse staff has begun. The search for housing has also begun. Election of Officers: Ken moved to re-elect Roger as Chairman and Paul as Vice- Chairman/Secretary. Lynne seconded Ken's motion. The motion passed. Old Business: Nate gave us an up -date on the restaurant situation. Before a real estate agency was even hired to begin advertising for new restaurant management, the city received interest from a couple of individuals. One interested party is from Boise. The other individual is from Washington State. This particular person has experience in running a golf course restaurant. He has already come to look at the facility and expressed great interest. Now the question is, "Does the city even need a realtor?" Updates to follow. Nate also said that no contract between Allan and the city has been finalized. Parties are still working on splitting the power bill. Nate said that Erin is still working on updating/improving the web sight. New Business: Roger suggested that we move the agenda topic of "Fee Schedules" to the October meetings. The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for April 12, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. Roger Snodgrass GCAC Chairman McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for April 12, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Roger Snodgrass, Paul Stover, Ken Stearns, Kristin Christensen, Allan Morrison (via phone) Ken made a motion to accept the March minutes. Kristin seconded that motion. The minutes were approved. The meeting began with Nate Coyle presenting information on the Wastewater Annexation Election. Nate also said he would be emailing committee members the latest draft of the golf pro contract. He would like feedback via email by the end of the month. Eric's Report: The greens are looking good. We have been spreading special fertilizer on the greens to speed up the snow melting process. The guys finished painting in the clubhouse. We also repaired the deck rail that was damaged by snow from the roof. A total of 13 seasonal staff have been hired. By next week, there should be 7-8 workers. Work is continuing on the practice green. We plan to aerate the greens by the first of May. As always, there is some snow mold and vole damage. The driving range is open for use by the McCall High School Golf Team. New signs were put up reminding people to pick up after their pets. Allan's Report: Most of the Pro -shop staff will be returning. Last year's chef has also agreed to return. Allan will be returning to McCall next week. Roger reported that this year's fee schedule was submitted to the City Council and approved. New Business: Roger handed out a copy of the Golf Course Advisory Committee Mission Statement that is up for recommendation to the City Council. It was suggested that under the heading of "Duties", #1 should read Oct. 20 instead of Jan. 10. Roger also handed out a copy of monthly agenda topics for the committee. Eric suggested the following changes: 1) move the annual budget discussion to May, 2) move the facilities discussion to April, 3) move marketing to September. The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for May 11, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. Roger Snodgrass GCAC Chairman McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for May 10, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Roger Snodgrass, Paul Stover, Ken Stearns, Kristin Christensen, Allan Morrison Ken made a motion to accept the April minutes. Kristin seconded that motion. The minutes were approved. Eric's Report: Most of our staff positions have been filled. The weather has slowed our progress on the course, but we have been plugging along. We were finally able to complete the aerification of the greens and get the top dressing applied. The guys have been busy mowing the fairways and repairing vole damage. Work on the practice green has been postponed for now. Several trees were blown over during a windstorm, so we will need to work on those. We also have some leaning trees that we will be removing. We hope to have the course open by Memorial Weekend. Allan's Report: The Pro -shop is staffed and ready. Allan has four cooks hired for the restaurant, but he is having trouble finding housing for them. Last October's bad weather has caused green fee income for 2017 to be running behind expectations. Monthly Topic: Eric talked about his five-year plan for using Lot money. Some of this year's money will be used for repairing cart paths. He also plans to purchase a dump trailer. Eric said he expects this year's working budget to be the same as last years. Eric has often talked about his desire to erect some lightning shelters on the course. He is looking into the possibility of using some donated money to build the first shelter. Nate Coyle gave an update on the city's plans for finding someone to run the restaurant. The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for June 14, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. tr, Roger Snodgrass GCAC Chairman McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for June14, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Roger Snodgrass, Paul Stover, Ken Stearns, Lynne Edwards -Swanson, Allan Morrison Ken made a motion to accept the May minutes. Roger seconded that motion. The minutes were approved. Eric's Report: By the end of May, most of the staff was here and working hard. We were able to complete the aerification of the greens in time for the course opening. The guys have been busy repairing vole damage, and there is still a lot of work to do. Work on the practice green will start again when we are caught up with more important course items. The downed trees are being removed from the course. Allan's Report: The Pro -shop is fully staffed and ready. We have three marshals ready to monitor the course. The cooks have been housed. The staff just completed a week-long junior clinic. We also plan to have junior clinics every Wednesday throughout the season. Allan gave a recap of the tournaments that will be happening before the July meeting. Course income is lagging about $41,000 behind last year's. This month's topic of discussion was Golf Course Rules and Regulations. Lynne questioned the provision about dogs not being allowed on the course during the golf season. After discussion, it was decided to keep the rule as it was written. Nate Coyle gave the group an update on the restaurant. The hired realtor service has been advertising for interested parties to submit proposals. The city hopes to start looking at those proposals within the month. ,Nate also said that Allan's contract was submitted to the City Council last month. There are still some items to be addressed. The council is still committed to a five-year deal. The meeting was adjourned. The next meeting is scheduled for July 12, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. We will be reviewing the 5-year plan. Roger Snodgrass, Chairman Eric McCormick, Golf Course Director McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for October 11, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Allan Morrison, Rodger Snodgrass, Ken Stearns, Rita Bolli-Neal (Michael Hayes — will be substituting for Rodger as the Men's Club representative) Ken Stearns moves to accept the September minutes. Rita seconded the motion. The minutes were. approved. Eric's Report: Cart paths were done with the budgeted money ($64 K). Prefer to do $10 K a year in the future. Not enough time to grind up areas so opted to overlay instead and patch some areas. Lessons learned from batch plant which produced asphalt to specs of biggest user that day, reason for some smooth asphalt and some with larger gravel. Note: Golfers were not respectful of barriers and roped off areas. Traded in the skid steer and are now leasing a CATS skid steer with Parks and Rec. This will allow to us to perform our own asphalt grinding and stump grinding. The donated pavers were installed at the driving range, still have some left over. Purchased 2 new (used) fairway mowers from Whitetail. Using the city auction site to get rid of old equipment no longer used. Hope to get some of the 5-year capital improvement projects done this fall including heat pumps in the clubhouse, new drainage piping at the driving range and a shop expansion depending on labor and weather. In the future plan to replace RR ties with decorative paving blocks, maybe start at the practice putting green. Allan's Report: Income is down $37 K over last year, possibly due to wet spring and bad September -weather although we are above the 5-year average by $34 K. Discussion of green fees and passes revenue and Allan stated he is willing to tweak the report reflecting different parameters if anyone has specific data they would like to see, for example breakdown of all day passes vs. after 2:00 passes. Restaurant has been slow and keeping minimum hours and staff. Looking forward to next year with no restaurant responsibilities. New restaurant contact operator is planning on $90 K worth of improvements, will start after it closes Nov 15t and plans to be open for Winter Carnival, and be operating year round. Eric stated the final contract for the new operator will be voted on by city council tomorrow night. October's monthly topic was Fee structure. After much discussion, Ken made a motion to recommend to the city council to keep all of the fees for next year the same as this year. Rita seconded the motion and the motion passed. Old Business: Eric reported on the survey results with 184 responding to the one survey and 196 to the other. There are complaints that not everyone received an email about the survey. 58% were in favor of changing Cedar #3 to a par 5 and 55% were in favor of changing the tee colors to black/silver. There was a lot of discussion about Cedar #3 and it concluded with not making any change. Allan continues to ask for any recommendations on how to get more people to play Cedar? Eric and Men's club representatives met with Bessie Jo Wagner to resolve the Men's Club Hole Signage/Advertising proposal with the city and a resolution with the city attorney has been reached thanks to Bessie Jo's help. The issue will be voted on at the Oct 26tn council meeting. New Business: Eric will look into the details of the disability grant possibilities for the golf course. Allan presented next month's topic of Tournament Schedule with a proposed schedule which includes moving the 2-lady best ball to the weekend and the Women's Club Championship to a Weds-Thurs. All present seemed to favor the new proposal and will vote on it at the next meeting which is scheduled for November 8`n Meeting was adjourned. Eric S. McCormick, Golf Course Director McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for November 8, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Paul Stover, Allan Morrison, Kristin Christensen, Rita Bolli-Neal, Lynne Edwards -Swanson Before dealing with the month's agenda items, Paul said he had a question/concern about on-line surveys. He wanted to know why couples only got to vote once instead of individually? The explanation given was that surveys are sent out to e-mail addresses; therefore, if a couple shares the same address, they will only get the survey once. Allen then broached the subject of shortening some holes for the ladies. He specifically mentioned holes Birch 5 and 6 along with Cedar 7. He proposed moving the ladies' tees forward to the approximate location of the present yellow tee markers. After some discussion, Allan asked Lynne to get some feedback from Ladies' Association members and report back to him. Rita said she needed to make some changes to her October minutes. One change was to correct the spelling of Michael Hades to Michael Hayes. The other change was that Eric had purchased two mowers from Whitetail, not just one as stated in the minutes. Rita then moved that we approve the amended minutes. Lynne seconded that motion. The minutes were approved. Eric's Report: The weather continues to be a problem. The last few greens were covered for winter yesterday. Cross-country skiers have already caused problems by trudging over some greens. The greens now have ropes and signs asking people to stay off. The plan is to keep enough workers this winter to allow Eric and Billy to take some vacation time. Allan's Report: Thanks to the poor weather, October revenue was down from last year. Total rounds were also down from both 2015 and 2016. Allan challenged the group to think of ways to get more golfers to play Cedar. November's monthly topic was Review of the Tournament Schedule. Allan gave the group a rundown of dates for 2018 tournaments. Paul made a motion that our group goes on record as supporting Allan's proposed tournament schedule. Lynne seconded the motion, and the motion passed. Old Business: Bessie Jo Wagner told the group that the restaurant contract with Michael Burn had been officially signed and executed. He hopes to have the restaurant remodeled and open by Winter Carnival. She also gave us an update/timeline on the hiring of a new City Manager. She said that in early December there will be an open house where the public can meet the finalists. She encouraged members to attend. In January 2018, the new City Manager will be named. She also confirmed that the tee -sign agreement between the City of McCall and the Men's Association has been signed and approved. New Business: Nothing was scheduled for this month. The next meeting is December 13, 2017, at 4:00 p.m. Meeting was adjourned. Eric S. McCormick, Golf Course Director McCall Golf Advisory Meeting Minutes for December 13, 2017 Attendees: Eric McCormick, Paul Stover, Ken Stearns, Allan Morrison (via phone), Kristin Christensen (via phone), Lynne Edwards -Swanson, JJ Johnson (rep for men's assoc.) A motion to approve the November minutes was made by Lynne. Ken seconded the motion. The minutes were approved. Eric's Report: At the end of Nov., we were down to three full-time employees and one seasonal to help with snow removal. With all the rain, we were concerned about ice on the greens. Staff removed snow and ice from some of the greens. They appear to be okay, but we are keeping a close eye on them. We were able to install a pipe down the west side of the driving range. This will help get well water past the range and help us maintain the west side of the driving range. The dog stations were installed, and we started snow removal from the paths. Equipment repair is going well. Work continues on the restaurant buyout for Michael Bryne, the new operator. We were able to purchase a new rough mower. We also have money from the CIP to replace the heat pumps in the clubhouse. Am working on bids. Hope to have the change out happen before the restaurant opens. Allan's Report: The only important news from Allan was that a new assistant pro has been hired. December's monthly topic was "Review of the Golf Professional's Contract Provisions." Since most members did not have a copy of the latest contract, this topic was tabled until the January meeting. Eric will be forwarding copies of the contract to committee members. Old Business: Eric informed the committee that the City Council has proposed an increase in golf rates for 2018. Daily rates would increase by a dollar. Most yearly rates would increase by about 2.9%. Eric gave an update on the restaurant. Painting has been completed. An electrician is coming to install new lighting. The bar area is scheduled for remodeling. The hope is to replace the current fireplace with a two-sided version. Michael hopes to open the first weekend of Winter Carnival. The restaurant will be open four days a week. At our November meeting, Allan asked Lynne to gather feedback from the Ladies' Association about shortening some holes by moving the tees forward. Lynne reported that the ladies seemed to be in favor of playing a "combined course". This layout would use some silver and some gold tees. New Business: Nothing was scheduled for this month. The next meeting is January 10, 2018, at 4:00 p.m. Meeting was adjourned. Eric S. McCormick Golf Course Director