2-27-2022

Good Morning,

This past week I attended the Iowa Turf Conference in Des Moines.  This conference brings together golf course, sports turf, and lawn care people from all across the state to experience education sessions along with networking opportunities.  

Some of the more interesting classes included a session with the Iowa DNR discussing an Iowa Water Use Plan, a winter turf research update, and developing a comprehensive disease management program.  It was one of the best turf conferences I have attended, in Iowa, for quite some time.

I was able to visit with Speed’s during the trade show to gather a little more information on our rental carts that were ordered one year ago.  They feel pretty confident we should receive our golf carts prior to the season starting.  I’d be happy if they arrived sometime in April.  Time will tell.

The warm weather will have the snow melted off the golf course in a day or two.  There is quite a bit of moisture on the greens which gives me an ease of mind.  I was really shocked to talk to so many golf course people that have only received a few inches of snow in their areas.  We are well below our average snowfall but doing a lot better than most golf courses.

Over the next few days I will continue to monitor the condition of the golf course as well as start picking up branches and other debris.  There are still quite a few small branches from the high winds during the winter months.  There is also quite a collection of plastic grocery sacks.  

Enjoy the sunshine and warm weather.  Spring is just around the corner and we will be golfing in no time.  I’m estimating the end of March will be close to an opening date for the 2022 golf season.

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com

2-13-22

Good Morning

The past week brought warmer temperatures and more wind to the area. The snow is slowly melting from the golf course leaving the turfgrass exposed to the elements. The majority of the greens still have decent snow cover but we are well behind the average precipitation totals. There is still a lot of dryness where the lightest snow accumulation was present on the greens.

The rain shower Thursday evening definitely helped. We received .25” of rain total. Below is a photo of the 18th green on Thursday. After the rain there was very little snow left on the course Friday morning.

18 green snow cover 2-9-22.jpg

With so little precipitation it will most likely be another season where the irrigation system is running extra hours in the months of April and May. The tiles are running very slowly into the irrigation pond which will also require the well to run a lot sooner than normal to keep the irrigation pond level high enough to satisfy our irrigation needs.

I continued to work on several maintenance repairs in the shop. The majority of our equipment is ready to go for the 2022 golf season. I am still waiting on a few parts on backorder and I will be finished with all major repairs. There are still some minor repair projects that will be completed during the set up of each mower.

Our Tyler Parks and Recreation software is still not ready to be introduced to the clubhouse. We are waiting for Tyler Technologies to complete the necessary action on their end that will ensure the software runs smoothly with no errors. This new software will allow the golf course staff to better manage our customers upon registration.

The customer will eventually be able to login to the site and enter their personal profile information as a member at the golf course. In the meantime, until the software glitches are corrected I manually enter this information for each individual as the fees are paid for the season. To date, everyone that has paid for the 2022 season has been updated onto the program.

I met with our finance officer Brian Weuve and city manager Dan Gifford to go through the proposed 22/23 budget for the golf course. The entire city budget will be presented to the finance committee next week before it is introduced to the city council for approval. The main change for the upcoming budget is an increase in part time wages.

The initial steps have begun to start the hiring process for the golf course in 2022. At the end of next week we will advertise for a couple openings in the clubhouse. We are a month away from starting to entertain the idea of possibly opening the golf course. It won’t be long!

I will be out of the office for the first couple of days this coming week. I will be available by email and sometimes phone if there are questions or more information is needed on a topic. Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

Www.spencermunigolf.com

2-6-2022

Good Morning,

Spencer Municipal Golf Course has been a participant in a University of Minnesota winter turf survey since late this past fall.  Each Sunday, around noon, I take a picture of our practice green, document weather conditions, and provide an update of the week long weather changes.  This information and photo are submitted to the research team to help understand how winter weather affects turfgrass.  The link below is a short article describing this awesome trial:

https://horticulture.umn.edu/news/winter-turf-working-toward-greener-spring

Currently we still have a decent amount of snow cover on the golf course.  However, the turf underneath the snow is very dry.  With the warmer temperatures I will continue to monitor the greens and determine if we need to haul water moving forward.  The lack of snowfall is a positive for most people but it’s a negative for agriculture.  It leaves our soil profile dry and the tiles filling our irrigation pond producing only a trickle of water.  It also puts a demand on our irrigation right away for the 2022 season.   

On Monday night department heads, city council members, and the mayor met for the presentation of the 2023-27 Capital Improvement Plan.  This plan outlines items for the plan and how they are funded by the City of Spencer.  It was a great presentation by our Finance Officer Brian Weuve.  The main focus for the golf course was to introduce a continued equipment replacement program over the next five years at the golf course.  This Plan will go to the council for approval.

On Wednesday night the same group of individuals met with the City Administrator of Story City Mark Jackson.  Department Heads spent the afternoon in one on one sessions sharing information to help develop two year goals for the city.  It was a wonderful day filled with a lot of great discussion and information provided by everyone.  In the end, the city council was able to decide on three main goals moving forward: what to do with the new 100 acres of land, Parks Master Plan, and development to the north of Spencer.

The Street Division finished hauling away our tree and brush pile we accumulated from our late season tree removal and pruning projects.  In the future we will use a wood chipper and small dump truck as we go through the tree removal and pruning process.  This will allow us to more easily dispose of the debris in a more timely manner.  In the meantime, thank you to the Street Division staff for assisting us with this project.

Maintenance focus was spent on our two Toro 3150 mowers.  These units have been our tee and collar mowers in the past but will be used for mowing greens in 2022.  There were some small repairs completed on both machines to help them operate properly.  New bedknives, 1/16″ thick were installed on the reels to help us provide a perfect cut on the greens at 3mm (.118 “).  These two units are ready to go for the golf season!

We hosted a private party in the clubhouse on Friday evening.  This is the fifth event we have had in the clubhouse this off season.  The clubhouse is not open on a daily basis but is available for scheduled events during the off season.  I have a couple more events coming up later this month.  

The upcoming week will see city staff moving into the 2022/23 budget planning phase.  Department Heads have completed the preliminary work in preparation for finalizing these numbers with City Manager Dan Gifford and Finance Officer Brian Weuve.  After that the process moves to introducing the proposal to the city council for discussion and eventually final approval.  

Enjoy the remainder of the weekend.  I will see the golf board Monday evening and the city council shortly afterwards.  Golf season is just around the corner!
—

Brian C Mohr

Director of Golf Operations

City of Spencer

101 W 5th Street

Spencer Municipal Golf Course

Spencer, Iowa 51301

712-260-5370

www.spencermunigolf.com