Commissioners Present: Anne O’Connell (Chair), Wyn Morton, Jeff Odell, Ed Pavlu, John Piemontese, and Judy McCarthy. Carl Blanchard was absent.
Others Present: Mark O’Brien (Director of Operations), Pete Ervin (Superintendent), Jerri Carlin (Women’s 9-Hole Assn.), Cindy Bingham (Selectmen liaison), and Judy Miller.
This meeting was held at the Brewster Town Hall and may be viewed at http://view.earthchannel.com/PlayerFlex.aspx?PGD=brewsterma&eID=1264.
Call to Order: Anne O’Connell called the meeting to order at 4:00 p.m.
Public Comment:
- Jerri Carlin reported the 9-holers have 54 players signed up. The book will be coming out soon; the first board meeting is April 10 and the first match is May 4.
- Jerri Carlin reported on the Friends—the first meeting is April 6; she also thanked all those who so generously support the Friends. There will be a 50/50 raffle at the open house and a closest-to-the-pin for Brewster in Bloom which is the first weekend in May. The bathroom project is underway. The floor man will be there next week; she anticipates this project done by May. The proximity markers have been ordered. The Friends tournament will be a shotgun on Sunday, June 4, followed by hors d’oeuvres and a silent auction. This year the Friends will be giving out two scholarships in the amount of $500. The Friends are working with Jay Packett and the School Committee regarding the scholarship program for the young golfers at the course.
Correspondence and Suggestion Box:
- Carl Blanchard is away.
- Mark O’Brien received a contact on the website from Mr. Dellibovi suggesting discounted rates for seniors and for members. He suggested with-cart memberships, off peak cart rates and coupon books. These matters can be reviewed when the membership rates for 2018 are discussed. Mark O’Brien thinks that any additions to the current policy would only decrease revenues; Anne O’Connell agreed and will respond to his email advising him of member discounted fees.
Superintendent’s Report:
- Pete Ervin reported the winter clean-up is in full swing with a few expansions being done. There are numerous tree stumps to be cleaned up. Drainage on Starboard 4 will be done; the hill on Port 6 has been cleaned up, the goal for the next six months being to establish turf on that hill.
- The NEIGA tournament for the ladies will be this weekend.
- Aeration is coming up; the Port will be done first, then the Starboard.
- The power line project is about halfway finished. Hopefully there will be water for aeration next week.
- Staffing is going very well with most of the employees returning this year.
- Peter Erving is trying to foster the worker program through the tech school.
- There has been some discussion about some of the next projects the Friends might fund, namely the fountains on 8 Port and 14 Port. It would probably be easiest to with the pond on 14. This project is up for further review.
- Regarding installation of the nets, they are on their way and will installed after the areas are graded out and smoothed and levelled.
- Thanks to the guys on the crew who have renovated parts of the maintenance building.
- The Brewster Men’s Club will be having a lunch for the maintenance department. There will be an open house at the maintenance building that day. Please come by and see the building.
- Ken Mackinaw has retired; Peter Ervin thanked him for his good work and wished him well.
Director’s Report:
- Mark O’Brien reported the Women’ NEIGA Golf Championship is this weekend. There are seven schools with thirty-three players participating with hope that will grow in the future. There are twenty-six volunteers for this event. It will be tee times on Saturday starting at 9:30 on the Port Course and a shotgun at 9:30 on Sunday.
- March was typical this year but better than when the course is covered with snow.
- Memberships are rolling in as current memberships expire on April 1. Mark O’Brien will be better able to report on memberships after the end of April.
- The staff is starting to come back as of April 1.
- The open house is on April 29; Mark O’Brien will start to publicize this event over the next couple of weeks.
- Play was pretty good in February. We are tracking well in that regard, but a lot depends on how the memberships come in.
- Anne O’Connell reported Mark O’Brien did a great presentation at the Finance Committee meeting in March; it went incredibly smoothly and everything was approved unanimously. The commission is going to Town Meeting with endorsements from both boards.
Update on meeting with architect:
- Mark O’Brien and John Piemontese met with Steve Schuman, the architect, in regard to renovating the clubhouse. They are basically looking for two schematics regarding updating the floor plans with rough-cost estimates for each one. One of the schematics being just building a new bar in the existing bar area; the other is taking down the wall talked about in the walk-through and extending the restaurant out into the meeting room. The architect submitted a letter of understanding that his fees for that work would be $5600, and he expects to be able to get those schematics and cost estimates by mid-May which would enable the commission to incorporate any of that into the bid specifications for the restaurant for the new restaurant lease. John Piemontese said Mr. Schuman indicated the building is in good shape and said the current layout is favorable for incorporating a new design without a major overhaul.
Restaurant Issues:
- Anne O’Connell has set up an RFP committee of herself, John Piemontese, Carl Blanchard, Mark O’Brien, Jerri Carlin, Cindy Bingham and Mike Fitzgerald to update the RFP and when the schematics come in incorporate that by the end of May. She will send an email out to find a time when the RFP group can be kicked off. Mark O’Brien would like to get the bids in by the end of August with decisions made by mid-September. Whatever renovations need to get done will be done over the winter months, hopefully finished by next spring.
Potential electrical efficiencies:
- Ed Pavlu and Mark O’Brien met with a representative of Rise Engineering who went through everything—the clubhouse, restaurant and the maintenance building looking for efficiencies. No report has been received yet. The electrician went through everything but the clubhouse and is putting together a report on electrical usage. He spent some time with Peter Ervin looking for efficiencies in the maintenance building. He also looked over the cold storage building. He will be putting together a report on availability of free items.
Follow Up:
- Ball Washer—Port 6
- Peter Ervin feels it is unnecessary to put a ball washer on Port 6 since it would be in the way and golfers needs to go past the ball washer already there.
Future Agenda Items:
- Ongoing agenda items.
Review and Approve 1/10/17 and 2/14/17 minutes:
- The minutes of 1/10/17 regarding the conference room door should read the back door near the conference room.
- Jeff Odell made a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of 1/10/17 as amended, seconded by Ed Pavlu. Motion passed unanimously.
- Jeff Odell made a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of 2/14/17 as written, seconded by Judy McCarthy. Motion passed unanimously.
Topics the Chair did not reasonably anticipate:
- Wyn Morton reported the website has been up and running since the first of the year; it sounds and looks great. Charlie Heller has been compiling statistics which Wyn Morton has handed out. Website usage is up 17 per cent from February of last year through early March of this year. Discussion followed.
John Piemontese made a motion, seconded by Judy McCarthy, to adjourn the meeting. The motion was approved unanimously. Meeting adjourned at 4:45 p.m.
The next meeting of the Brewster Golf Commission will be held on April 11, 2017 at 4 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dorothy Vesperman
Senior Clerk