Golf Course Superintendent Bruce Allen says renovating the golf pro shop has been identified as the most pressing need at the municipal owned golf course. Allen says the building is a depression era project that was built by WPA/CCC workers in the late 1930s. Allen says not a whole lot has changed since that time, and that’s one of the reasons why the work is so desperately needed.
“The building was built in 1938 so a lot of the plumbing and electrical is still from 1938 and the addition was in 1970. So the newest work, structural work and plumbing and electrical was in 1978 so that was 40 years ago,” said Allen.
Allen says several upgrades have been planned for the building. He says it will be a much nicer, and a more functional facility once the work is done.
“We are going to replace the roof. We are going to do a little bit of work on the interior — no too much but a new air conditioning system, new duct work and all then all of the electrical work and the IT work and then today, we probably realized that we are going to have redo the plumbing. We are having some water quality issues down there and you know, those little iron pipes underneath the pro shop were put there in 1938 so we’ll probably replace the plumbing too,” said Allen.
City officials say they recognize that the work is being done in an area that got six to eight feet of water inside it during the 1998 flood, so flooding will forever be an issue for the site. But Allen says they are taking some steps inside to try to mitigate the impact of future flood events. He told the council that elevating the building was not a reasonable option and moving the pro shop further up the hill would dramatically change the layout of the course.