City Staff Presents Golf Course Proposal

Toccoa city staff present a proposal for putting the Pines golf course back under full city control as a department of city government.

City commissioners met with Public Works Department staff at a work session on Monday to talk about the nine-hole golf course off of Black Mountain Road, which has remained closed since late August when the operator leasing it from the city notified Toccoa officials he could no longer operate the course.

When the city operated the course itself, it functioned as a part of the Public Works Department.

Toccoa Public Works Director Randy Smith has operated the course in the past.

He said that to get the course back into playable condition, the city will have to spend money.

Smith said the biggest need is an irrigation system for the greens.

According to Smith, the current manual irrigation system will work for the fairways, but not for the new greens that the city will need to put in for the course.

“The system that is up there now is an old manual system,” said Smith. “That means you have to place sprinkler heads on the course, turn the pump on, let them run a while, and then manually move them while the water is running to another fairway or green to water that area. It cannot work for the type of grass we need on our greens for a decent playing surface.”

Smith estimated that the irrigation system will cost about $60,000 with the city doing the installation.

Speaking of the new greens, Smith said he estimates putting those in would cost about $35,000.

He said those new greens will be easier to maintain in some ways, but require more care in other ways.

“In the winter, if the temperature drops down into the teens, you have to buy covers and cover these greens to keep the ground as warm as we can, keep it from freezing solid,” said Smith.

He said this is common in the golf industry, but was not required for the city’s old bentgrass greens.

Smith also estimated spending about $60,000 on equipment and $10,000 on work on the fairways, tee boxes, and aprons around the greens.

As far as staffing, Smith recommended one full-time superintendent with three-part time employees and the rest of the work coming from a second inmate work crew that the city would contract for with the state.

The city would have to buy a van for the inmates at a cost of $45,000, plus the yearly cost of the inmate crew, which is $39,500.

In addition, the city would have to spend money to either lease or buy golf carts. Smith says the previous operator’s cart lease was about $64,000 a year.

Also over time, city officials said work would need to be done on the pro shop and parking area.

Smith said he feels that the course can be an asset to the community and that people will come back and play the course.

Toccoa Mayor Gail Fry agreed.

“I keep going back to quality of life,” said Fry. “We are about quality of life for our citizens. I think that golf course is a gem. It has been in this community forever and I think this community would enjoy it.”

City commissioners did not specify where the city would get all of the funding for what is needed, but City Manager Billy Morse said there may be grants available and notes that the course would bring in revenue.

Commissioners are expected to hear from one more individual interested in operating the course for the city on November 24.

Morse has said the city could make a decision on golf course operations by the end of the calendar year with a plan of re-opening the course next August.