Work at Mountain View Golf Course is moving forward slowly with the project hinging on a commission decision of whether to repair and upgrade the existing nine holes or to add nine new holes.
In mid 2013, Public Works Foreman Jake Edgar told commissioners he did not feel comfortable proceeding with building nine new holes with the existing nine being in need of dire repairs.
Commissioners got to the point of a completed design for the back nine before the project was put on hold. They then tasked Day Engineering of Fallon with preliminary design of repairs to the front nine and cost estimates for repairing the front nine and construction of the new nine, said Jay Fischer, vice president of the golf association.
The preliminary design for the front nine and the cost estimates for the entire project were completed and submitted to the county at the beginning of the year.
With the design work for the back nine complete, additional design work for repairs and modifications to the existing nine is required in order to go out to bid.
Edgar and Fischer brought Day Engineering's options to the commissioners at their Feb. 27 meeting but all five options exceeded the $1.7 million budget. A portion of that amount has already been spent on Day Engineering's work and the design work on the back nine.
Fischer presented commissioners with another option which fell within the budget and commissioners chose to go with a part of that, focusing on the wells.
The current cost estimate to add nine new holes to the golf course is approximately $3.5 million, which includes an irrigation lake. An additional well would have to be drilled also.
The modifications and repairs to the front nine holes and existing course ranged from just above $1.7 million to $3.3 million.
Changes to the existing course would include modifying the tee complexes on eight holes, the construction of nine sand bunkers and complete reconstruction and realignment of three holes.
Commissioners opted to proceed with upgrading the two existing wells and getting new variable frequency drives to control the wells. This work is slated to be done in the fall, right after golf season.
"I think taking the existing money and using as much as we can on the front nine, I think that's the way we need to go," Commission Chair Brian Garner said at the Feb. 27 commission meeting. "We need to do our biggest bang for our buck with what's broke on the front nine."
Commissioner Patsy Waits said she was concerned about putting in an additional nine holes since the golf course doesn't make the county a whole lot of money.
"Regardless of how we first built it, it's been a lot of money from this county that goes in there and if we put in an additional nine, I see that as costing a lot down the road when we may be really watching our budget a little bit closer than some of the reserve money that we put aside now," Waits said. "I definitely think that whatever we own, we should be taking care of."
Commissioner Dave Mason said he thought the county should hold off on building the back nine for now because it just doesn't have the money to put into the water and irrigation system that would be required.
Contact Heather Hill at h.hill@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
