The following are the minutes of the Brewster Golf commission held on 12/13/2011. The meeting was called to order at 4:00 PM by Rob Harris.
Commissioners present: Rob Harris, Chairman
Cindy Bingham, Vice-Chair
Jim Ehrhart
Lori Arnold
Anne O’Connell
Jeff Odell
Marc Fontaine
Staff present: Mark O’Brien, Director of Operations
Steve Mann, Superintendent
Others Present: Judy McCarthy
Jim Foley
Association Reports and Public Comments:
None given
Public Comment – liquor license approved. Concerns were logistic, enforcement of policies. No concerns about regular license, beverage cart concerns were discussed.
Unknowns are parameters for how cart will be run, what will be served, etc. Policy discussion for golf commission and police chief.
Approval of previous minutes-
Moved by Jim Ehrhart, second by Lori Arnold, approved 4-0-3
Correspondence:
Director of Operations Report (Mark O’Brien):
Review of Last Month’s Financial Statements
November weather, increased green fees and cart fees; all revenue categories up except pro shop. Sales weren’t as deep, possibly due to lack of inventory this year.
Lori asked about winter rate – a few people took advantage of winter rate, but none in November. $698 in October, $2291 in September. Membership # for FY will look better than previous years because of attractive program. Most courses in area are experiencing level or lower revenues compared to last year, so encouraging for Captains. Revenues looking good; expenses almost equal to what they were last year.
Fiscal year – Green fee line item up even more because of poor May – June to close out previous year. Up $120K. Expenses pretty much in line with what they were. Projections for fiscal year so far are on target.
Play total report for Nov – nice jump. Play total up, due to weather, second warmest nov on record.
YTD play totals – increase in rounds played despite fee increase. Increases were in play more in shoulder months.
Pro shop margins – margin for year 24%, lower in later months. Would like to see margins closer to 30%.
Inventory levels – by end of Dec, down to under $100K in inventory, hopefully closely to 80 or 90K.
Talked about including receipts reserved account. Mark is confident of current balance (752,436.93) in receipts reserved for appropriations account.
Calendar year – 11 mos of information; focus on green fees
Golf Dept Budget for FY 13
Just got worksheet for FY 13, must submit budget by December 23. Meet w/Charlie Sumner & Lisa Souve, then present to commission for review before meeting with selectmen in late January or early February. FinCom meeting is scheduled around the same time. Direction to prepare based on same level of service in FY13 as FY12.
Jim Ehrhart suggested utilizing part time employee due to after-hours play.
Met with cap planning comm. Reviewed cap plan and added $40000 in 2014 for repair of electrical line to pump for irrigation system. Also added replacement of HVAC (10 years out). Steve talked about work on intermunicipal agreement of aerifiers, blank line item for sink holes. Suggested to add number for repair of some sink holes within the next few years in case it is needed. Priorities for repair can change year to year. Cindy – should solo-rider be on the capital plan; but threshold is $10,000 in single year. Solo-rider is leased, so doesn’t meet threshold. Steve’s big yellow machine isn’t big enough to fix the sinkholes, plus not enough staff in winter. Could rehire staff on unemployment to fix the holes. Steve suggested renting equipment to make repairs.
Additions to calendar:
Retired mens club outing on 5/14, 8:00 shotgun.
Brewster mens club on 6/20, take men’s association block time
Cape Cod Mens Club June 5
July: tee times for couples tournament (15 – 17 foursomes, 60 – 70 players); why not have tournament on Sunday? Less busy day. Popular event, Mark doesn’t want to do anything to erode event. 12:00 tee times on Saturday.
Will women give up july 3 tee times? Men gave up times last time. No. It was discussed at executive board meeting.
September 6 – 9-Hole women requested shotgun for rally for a cure tournament (8:30 shotgun). Have done that in the past. League hosts lunch after golf.
October 15, Monday, Cape Cod Men’s Club
Women’s association requests block time through November, 8 – 8:45, not an issue while 2 courses open.
Discussion of calendar:
WGAM fall cup – Captains won fall cup this year, 24 players, 6 foursomes, four teams w/6 players on each team. 12:00 tee times, will choose from 3 dates 9/6, 9/13, 9/20. Won’t be much impact with12:00 start. Lori moved to approve. Anne second,6-0-1.
MGA – wants to hold mass am qualifier at captains in june on a weekday. 84 players, 1st and 10th tee start; will tie up course until about noon. No green fees, cart fees optional. Not a revenue generator other than exposure to the course. Haven’t hosted mga event in a while. Some prestige attached to hosting event. June 11 – 14, 18 – 21, 25 – 28. Jeff recommends june 11th. Jeff moves to approve for june 11, rob second;
Mark raised concern about cost of hosting event, given that mga makes money. MGA important for golf industry, don’t charge fee to rate courses. Publicity for course, followup on sports pages that event was here. Cindy agrees that mga does tremendous amount for players. 7-0-0.
New England PGA wants to host NEPGS junior event, July 17, 19 or 26. One day event. Difficult to support since we host our own junior golf day which is big revenue sacrifice. Great organization, no fees; Jim Ehrhart moved to approve, Jeff Odell seconded. Mark – juniors are a good thing, better than amateurs, perpetuates the game, but july? One day in july is as good as a week in October. Cindy – this could be in lieu of junior golf day. No one in favor of giving up junior golf day. Phrase response to address seasonal resort nature, and that we have a well-established junior golf program. 0-7-0
Superindentent’s Report (Steve Mann)
Crane flies are now most every green, tee, fairway and rough. Sprayed 3x in last 6 weeks and still coming. Met with a Dupont rep at ocean edge, eastward ho and cc national also have them. New to us, so don’t know timing to apply to go after larva. Back in week because adults are up and about. They hibernate, but will keep coming until the ground freezes. They eat the grass: leaf, crown and roots. UMass entomologist wants to come and test in the spring, no one knows what to do about them. Still cutting greens; fairway mowers down for winter repair. Started some tree work.
Consultant Committee Liaison Report (Lori Arnold):
Study well under way. John Miller and John Evans, met w/Rob Harris and Lori Arnold as well as Mark O’Brien and Steve Mann. Asked for information, and have followed up with more questions: well monitoring, fertilization report, etc. They also want to meet with people, will have five or ten minute conversation, wrap it up in January, report due by 1/13, present to selectmen on 1/23 or 1/30. Golf commission will meet w/consultant before meeting w/BOS.
“Rules & Information Guide” for 2012 season:
Need to wait for rate sheet; Cindy Bingham volunteered to make changes for updates. What will guidelines be for solo-rider. Do we need policy for solo-rider? Cindy will work on policy with Mark O’Brien.
Other Business:
Hosting service at Chelsea reservation system, not Mark’s office. Mark talked to Chelsea, they have proposal for us to do hosted version, looks really good. Will save money in this fiscal year. Wants to go over a few things with Kathy and Rob, has to do with the “cloud” ; hopes to have it in place by 3/1/12. Chelsea indicated that sheet can be color coded as well.
Review of refund policy – Rob will address.
Hardhats – employee policy; sought guidance from insurance carrier for town. Recommendation of insurance carrier:
Hard hat policy for maintenance personnel
All employees must wear a hard hat when in the areas of highly targeted play. Highly targeted play is defined as any area with a high concentration of balls being played in or around the area being worked. Examples of this would be working around greens doing such work as edging, adding sand, week whacking and any other form of trim work when there is play on the hole being worked on and working in the driving range landing area when it is open to play. Any violation of this policy shall warrant a written warning. After (3) warning any employment with the town of Brewster/captains golf course could be terminated.
Painting before Back 9 moves in.
Carpeting – hopes to have RFPs out for three weeks, target is end of January for carpeting, not sure of timing for parking lot lighting. Check with Antonella regarding timing for carpet. She also wants to paint, try to involve her in color choices.
Fixtures – will need quotes, but will be part of same process. Hope to be done by mid-February.
Lighting – could it be a portion of starboard and portion of port? Will need a permit for the lights. Can we contact cape light compact about green energy credits to use for lighting project. Jim Foley will find electrician from his business and refer to the course.
Back 9 café has big sign out at Cranberry Valley, will they have one here? Must meet sign codes, perhaps raise Captains sign and put theirs underneath. Mark O’Brien must approve, will involve commission in decision.
Web cam status: Lori Arnold looked at quality of other golf course webcams. Spoke w/someone in Ohio, Mark got quote that cam will be about 1000 dollars, high quality. Found a window that will work, Mark will talk to Kathy about lower price model, point to port#1
Advertising on golf carts: Lori Arnold doesn’t know price point, waiting to hear from consultants.
Update on parking lot solar panels: Jillian Douglas at town hall said not in the immediate offing. No lease in place; need to find investors for project, permitting. Not off the table, but not likely to happen in near future.
Next meeting will be January 9, 2012, 4:00.
Jim Ehrhart moved to adjourn at 5:32, seconded by Cindy Bingham.