Park City plans to replace the golf course’s aging irrigation system over the next few years to conserve water and reduce ongoing repair costs.
City Manager Adam Lenhard said the irrigation replacement cost is estimated at $5.4 million. If the council authorizes the project, he says work could begin as soon as possible.
“Any additional improvements would be at the discretion of the council,” Lenhard said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour,” Sept. 16. “We're going to look at a full range of suggestions at the council meeting. We've done some community engagement, some public open houses to get ideas, and of course the architects are coming with their own set of recommendations. So, we'll look at all of that and then look at our capital improvement budget and see what we might be able to accomplish.”
The city has not decided how the construction will be phased. Lenhard says one option is to do the work over two summers, keeping nine holes open each year.
“Potentially, that seems to be a good approach that that allows us to keep some of it open and not have just total closure for our community.”
White Pine Touring, which leases the golf course and clubhouse for cross-country skiing during the winter, has asked whether snowmaking infrastructure could be installed while the course is under construction.
Lenhard said the irrigation and snowmaking systems would be separate, although some infrastructure could possibly be shared.
“They will have to be two different systems because every winter, the irrigation system that we use for the golf course, we blow that out, we winterize it,” he said. “Whereas any type of snowmaking that's charged year-round, and so it's a different system, different pressures. It's very likely though that there could be some shared infrastructure when we get in there and we're doing, you know, major trenching at the golf course, we certainly will be considering: is that the time to put in snowmaking facilities? Those decisions haven't been made yet. We'll discuss all of that.”
Once construction begins, Lenhard said the city plans to continue to give local residents preference when making tee times. The city will also need to determine whether season pass rates should be adjusted during construction.
