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Village Green reported in good financial shape despite grass die-off

By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer

HOWARD – Despite having to spend thousands of dollars to reseed grass at the Village Green Golf Course, the village-owned facility remains is in good financial shape for 2018, Director of Administrative Services Chris Haltom reported at the Monday, Sept. 10, Howard village board meeting.

“If you’ve played golf out there in the last month, you may have noticed there are some bare spots on the course,” Haltom said. “With that snow we had in April, and then in June it got very hot… there was a certain type of grass that we have that died. And it wasn’t just on our course, it’s (at) a lot of courses in the area, and it didn’t go dormant, it died.”

Haltom said that particular type of grass was negatively affected by the weather conVillage Green ditions.

“We didn’t get enough water on the fairways,” he said. “We don’t typically water the fairways until maybe late July (or) early August, and I don’t even know if we had the (watering) system up and running in June when we had those hot days.”

Haltom noted exposed dirt appeared in the areas where the grass died.

“The $20,000 increase that you see is for the seed we had to purchase to replant in those areas,” he said. “I would say it’s just about on every hole on the fairways where we had to plant some grass seeds, so it’s a pretty extensive (area).”

Haltom said the condition of the fairways at Village Green is the worst he’s seen since the village has owned the course.

“This (grass reseeding) should solve the problem,” he said. “Even with that extra $20,000, we’re still much ahead of where we have been in the last 4-5 years.”

According to the financial statement for the course through the end August, total revenue for the year, when combining the restaurant and course operations, was at $432,762 with total expenses at $374,512 for positive operating income of $58,250.

Haltom reported the main reason for the surplus is the new membership program.

He noted the golf operations launched another membership drive targeting non-members and sent out invoices to 540 existing members for the $250 membership fee, plus members will receive a $50 gift card to be used in the pub and grill.

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