Good Morning,
What a beautiful week we experienced for the month of November. It would have been a great week during any month. The golf course was busy and saw the most golfers on Wednesday. Today looks like the last nice day for some golf as long as you don’t mind the windy conditions. The suns already out and the temperature is a warm 55 degrees.
Several more pine trees were removed this past week. You really don’t have any idea how large a tree is until you cut it down and start hauling it away. There was one pine tree between #17 green and #18 tees that felt like a dinosaur. You can see the trunk in a picture below. We have removed half a dozen trees and still have four left to cut down. The process has gone about as smooth as we could ask for including nice weather.
I received an irrigation permit extension on Monday afternoon which allowed me to run the system all week trying to get plenty of water on the greens and tees. Saturday morning was the last day for irrigating. I started around 5:00 AM and went until the golfers started showing up around 8:30 AM. Then I started blowing out the main lines of the system finishing late morning. The lateral lines will be blown out starting Monday morning.
Final Irrigation.jpg
Main Line Blowout.jpg
Once the irrigation system has been blown out we move our attention to the pumphouse winterization. The intake lines and screens are removed from the wet well first. Then copper lines that prime the pumps and register the pressure to the computer are disconnected. The pumps are disconnected from the main line and drained. All electrical controls and monitors are disconnected and removed. We move all of these items to the maintenance shed to be stored in warm temperatures until 2021 Spring start up.
Staff and I were able to continue going through irrigation stations to clean out any debris and ensure everything is working properly after the intake problems contaminated the system with some sledge. We are down to only four stations that continue to stay open and will not shut down properly. This is most likely due to damage to the IC unit plunger. We will tear these valves apart if we have a couple nice days in the future.
Our water permit totals stayed within the limits of our Iowa DNR water permit for 2020. The irrigation system ran for 106.50 acre feet of water out of a maximum 121.5 acre feet. The well ran for 68.92 acre feet of water out of a maximum 81 acre feet of water. The extension allows 5 acre feet of water used out of the pond and zero water pumped from the well.
Enjoy the remainder of the weekend and soak up some sunshine. Please contact me with any comments, questions, or concerns so they can be addressed. “Swing easy today ’cause it’s gonna be breezy!”
—
Brian C Mohr
Director of Golf Operations
City of Spencer
Spencer Municipal Golf Course
Spencer, Iowa 51301
712-260-5370
Spencer Municipal Golf Course 