[Music] 17th right the 17th motion to open the meeting I'll make a motion Second that
All in favor i of course we have Sydney emailed out all to all of us a couple of the um the minutes from the past few meetings review those take a motion to approve those confirms the dates of February
20th February 25th and March 6th Was this the wrong Oh I'm so sorry Meetings Here we go Sorry There two folders too Let's check that February 11th February 20th and March 27th Those
are the three meetings that we had want to make a motion to accept the Yeah I'll make a motion to all favor I All right So there's no no mail no appointments tonight
So I put on just because I wasn't sure like if we can heard anything else from the town as far as FY26 or when the scheduled time plan to go to the fincom or anything like that was for itself Well we had a time scheduled to go to the fincom and then it mysteriously
disappeared Um and actually this afternoon uh at about 10 minutes after 4 I got what's sitting in front of you there This is golf enterprise fund FY2026 budget This is not what I received from the town This is what I got from the
town I just transposed the numbers into the format that we had had it uh when Dana and I gave you our initial budget project or budget requests what two months ago I think something like that Um if you go down uh the columns
um you'll see under proposed this is what the town took uh the budget that we had proposed and made changes and the changes are indicated in the far right column by either being red which is a
negative number or black which is a positive number Uh a couple of things to point out Of course they took all the salaries down to 2% salary rate increases down to 2% The one thing I will note though is
they gave the treasurer collector a 3.57% raise compared to 2% that they was allotted to our folks And we have a new line item under personal what they call personal
services which is salaries for a town accountant of $8,625 Yeah Don't know where that came from That might be a good question for you all to ask Um
and that's all I'm going to say on that Um going to the expenses I will point out one thing If you separate the two pages so you or you look at the first page and the second page what they have done is they have taken out from the
expense line items things which are not under our control such as workers compensation unemployment health insurance liability insurance including liquor pensions and Medicare So you will no longer see values for
those in the traditional categories that we had them in under expenses They all fall under one big fat line item called indirect costs So um if we go down the important things to
point out was um and I believe there's one mistake here because they sent me two budgets One of the budgets that they sent me had an energy for the the pro shop energy at 28,600 The second one they sent me had
it at 22,000 So I left it at the bigger number but I don't know which one's correct and which one's not from their standpoint Right The 28,600 is correct from ours If you go down the line um first one R&M
equipment I proposed 42,000 they cut it to 395 Um under rentals Dana had proposed 26,250 They cut 20 23,000 Um under telephone curiously
enough um Dana had only proposed 825 they proposed 1,852 Um under our maintenance telephone um I cut ours down to 2,000 They proposed 2500 I don't really think we need that much in the telephone I think Dana's telephone probably be more
expensive than mine would be Uh I just keep uh monies in there for the alarm um and and so on because we paid through that account through alarm system Um R&M irrigation uh they cut by 35 350
uh maintenance safety and training They cut by 1,700 which is going to be a problem because we have a new safety program for our staff here that involves training videos on all the equipment
MSDS or what they now call SDS sheets which are chemical information sheets um OSHA reviews and so on on an annual basis And that's why if you remember in our discussion about budget that's why I had increased it to
7,100 Um so that may be something that I'm going to have to look at and see I would recommend it going back to where it was Um under supplies golf shop they dropped it from the proposed 26,000 to 1,000 And then if you go to the second
page the only thing that really sticks out significantly are those indirect costs And you'll see that all the indirect costs listed there fall under a proposed budget of FY26 Um I applaud the effort to try to pull them out I don't know how the
numbers are calculated but I'm sure as though they're not something under our control um that the uh powers that be get that information from insurance companies and so forth So now we have a one large line item for
indirect costs which in this particular budget that they propose rounds out to 93,000 $93,975 If I could also speak to the golf cart lease and service contract Uh I sat in with Jamie and Jamie regarding that line
item and stated that with the discussion of our service contract included in that number that had to be in in the ballpark of 89 90,000 and that wasn't included later Yeah that wasn't addressed So how much how much should it be uh should be
roughly 90 90,000 over here Um the other thing I did notice is they um they did made no adjustment for long-term debt principle and long-term
debt interest Um Jamie uh assistant treasurer J or assistant accountant Jamie informed me that they wouldn't know that right away although we had been given numbers earlier that were significantly different than what
they gave me or gave gave us today So those two items uh need to be looked into The long-term debt is that what you said long-term debt and interest What we submitted was accurate because I got that from the treasurer So that's Well the numbers that are listed there are
inaccurate Yeah So if we go if we go to what we had um listed initially as Dana mentioned it was 290 295,000 for long-term debt principal and long-term debt interest was $12,375
So there's an approximate 30 there's an approximate $31,000 difference there which if those numbers are substituted I personally think we could bring our budget back to where it was originally proposed and I understand
their directive for budgeting but again we're an enterprise fund we don't come out of the general fund so and as we've always done if we get close to the end of the year and things aren't working out we just stop spending and start cutting So we're not you know as far as
the balanced budget ideology is concerned I'm not saying that our budget shouldn't be balanced but our expenses should be balanced with what we're making what we're making Exactly And we've always as
some of you guys know it's been it's always a moving target and we've always done it that way and we've done it quite successfully uh for 23 years So what you actually sent me this today Steve I got that Well I I asked for it I asked for
it yesterday Uh Jamie the girl what's Jamie's last name velesquez Velesquez She she worked on yesterday and then she got it to me earlier uh today Um about a little bit town hall about 2 230 or so
Um and then um I bought it back and she gave me this one right here and I started going down the numbers and I said "Whoa wait a minute There's something's not right here." So I called them back up and I had a little conference call with Jamie and Jamie and discussed these things and then they
sent me number B at about 10 after 4 or 4:00 to thereabouts and that's what I transposed into what we just discussed and Steve sat with Jamie and Jamie on the 4th and I sat with Jamie and Jamie
maybe two days two days before that and went through uh other budgets that we discussed previously as well So we've we've been running around this track um quite a bit So you know in short I mean you guys can look at the numbers you look at the differences see what you
think But I'm going to you know I'll toss this around tomorrow morning when it's most definitely going to be frosty and see if I can uh um you know see if we can take that plug in that long-term debt and principal uh and long-term debt
interest numbers that we have and see how this works out because it should work out to basically what we had before which in the end was only a 5% raise in the budget anyway You know the debt and principal I mean that was set a long time ago when the
bond was issued So there should be nothing to find out about that It's set whatever Yeah The interest and yeah thank you for putting that together If you do hear a date that we don't hear about for the um finance committee let us know Yeah We were supposed to be we
were on board then I guess um this wasn't done that Yeah that those changes weren't filtered in there And really I mean I the only thing that sticks out to me which you know again it's up to you guys uh you I mean I would be curious to
what the explanation is for grabbing $8,625 of our budget and paying an accountant when we already pay a treasurer collector I mean really technically speaking and I don't I don't say that they shouldn't be paid I don't know how that works in other budgets And
obviously we're an enterprise fund so we have to contribute But that's a you know that's a big chunk to put in there and and then have to compensate for by taking from other and I had a a an atlength discussion with uh with Jamie Jamie regarding that specifically and
we've discussed indirect costs for years When are they coming and what are they going to be if they should come if if and when we uh pay off the bond Um and I said "Listen the we've Steve and I have been working our butts off um for over
20 years and every time we go to put in for some sort of an increase prior to being in the union we didn't have enough money It's not in the budget level fund." Uh so I did I'm in total support of these sorts of increases on indirect
costs when justified And I do understand that other towns that have municipal golf courses have indirect costs and are substantially more than ours However the point I made is we're not yet paid for So our discussion has always been let us
get to the finish line first before you come in and and hit our budget for x amount of dollars And if you're not going to square up and help us support our family and getting you to that final you know end zone of paying off the bond
well how can you justify saying that you can come in and tap in and pay for other people's salaries i mean it doesn't make any sense And the other thing I I wondered about that is couldn't that be made a an indirect I mean maybe it can't because it's a payroll oriented but couldn't
that be made an indirect cost because as soon as it shows up in our personal services area it also contributes to Medicare and increases Medicare because Medicare is 1.5% of the total salaries paid out So I'm not saying it's not
justified I'm just wondering as Dana alluded to you know um you know the end zone's 10 5 10 yards away and when we get to the end zone then yeah then you'll have all that that that fun stuff to do And and there will be there should
be ample funds there for us to to finance the operation with regards to equipments and repairs and the necessary um you know costs being incurred by the business and profitability that can be utilized if need be by the town in
certain areas I mean let's face it right we're a town entity and it's their money So obviously at some point they're going to come knocking However timing is everything and you know that's just my perspective I got a question Why Why is this always a last minute
good question Really well why why did he have to do what he had to do to come to this even and verify what's wrong and what's right and what should be done not even why is that happening i don't know why why is the last budget the line
items not in as the way that they were voted by you guys that they they themselves as well as the finance committee when those things yeah I mean we took the same numbers in front of the finance committee and the finance committee that's the the final check off when they say go that's what I thought
is it it should be the final check off I guess I don't know who I I don't know who adjust it where they hey you you'll never find the answer because of turnover so much in that in the office that who who hit the keyboard
last it you know this stuff should be done way before you know they complain about when you guys are late with your bills with with your stuff at town hall this is worse well that I I would I mean normally the budget process we we
normally start in December January and we've you know we basically started then you know and and we had the budget and we've had the budget sitting there for two meetings now which is 2 months right mhm It's not like we weren't ready So I
don't Well and I mean specifically the debt and the principle and interest that was already received from the treasurer's office Those numbers came from you know town hall [Music]
Thanks for putting like this Yeah I mean open the door How are you in town at home no Not enough fresh air in that building I'm sorry They don't open enough windows [Music]
Just to make sure we get to it I'm going to jump down to letter E which is assistant superintendent wage recommendation And I put that on there Talked to Steve a little bit over the past week So just about a year ago probably 11 months ago
the committee as a whole made a recommendation that for that position Kevin right correct The Kevin's position Do you have any more copies of those or is that which one agendas Yeah Sorry I can make
you one Thank I thought the front page of it was the agenda so that's why I didn't hand them out I do have Thank you If you need Thank you So sorry Oh no I didn't realize business letter E assistant superintendent wage recommendations or I
believe it was last May about 11 months ago we discussed as a whole committee supporting you know an increase in the wage for for Kevin believe at that point in time we had set a rate of um $70,000 was the salary that we were recommending you know and there was a little bit of
you know interim time period going on with some people union forming and getting into it and negotiation was a contract whatever That aside we still as a board unanimously recommended that as a wage recommendation 11 months later that hasn't taken place So now with the
turnover and three people who weren't here a year ago I was just looking to see if we are all still on board with that level of recommendation And if so I would then put together a newly updated recommendation dated now with whatever
vote we may have tonight on it and support that and letter of support again just to see if we can help push something along for him because I do know that you know does an awful lot of good work for us We want to appreciate that and you know not see somebody leave over something that we do have should
have some control over I know Steve wants to chime in anything about him as well since he works directly with you every day Yeah No Um you know he's the very you know important in terms of you know direct another set of eyes on
the golf course directing staff on the golf course um keeping you know keeping the pace of work going uh when it should be Um obviously there are times when I either go on vacation not too many of those but um or have other commitments
where I can't be here where he's in charge Um and he's he's done a you know he's done an admirable job He's capable in in all areas um you know of the type and manner of work that we do Um and I'm
you know I'm always of the mind to keep and reward quality personnel I've always done that in the past and specifically at this day and age because you just don't find people that work similar to
the to the similar fashion that that he does and what I'm accustomed to in our business anymore Um you'll find a lot of people trying to run their golf course with one of these and a nice pair of shiny shoes and they don't get out there
and they're not looking at their surfaces every day of the week Whereas we're kind of a working person you know working you know I take a a working uh viewpoint of what we do and um it's not you know I really wouldn't feel comfortable not being able to get out
there on a daily basis and basically feel the dirt So um he does a good job and I I think that particular number is basically mid-range of what assistants are earning in in our particular um
region of the country and in um in um you know polls that I've taken with uh other superintendents in in similar courses and similar positions that So the the recommendation to raise the salary that's the mid-range What was you said 70 mid-range Okay I think
that's what we started with ago Yeah We had we proposed that he go up to $70,000 that just disappeared Is there was there a threat that for him to leave or because of Well the fact of the m I mean what's
what's been happening Adam you might not be aware of it Dana alluded to it earlier is that the rate I'll give you an example this particular year your raise percent's 2 and a2 your cost of living goes up at least three and a half your insurance goes up 20 I mean 10 10
10 or so% the last two years so you're basically losing money by staying at that 2% increase and you just can't it's very difficult for people to commit to a job when they see no future future in
that elevation and and be quite honest with you you know there are not a lot of assistants out there and basically what we do now is we steal them from each other and the way they steal them is you offer them better benefit package a
better you know and now one of the biggest things is the is the life work balance So now which was things which were unheard of when I was an assistant like having a weekend off No the 1st of April through the uh the week or two
after Thanksgiving No you don't get any vacations You're not going anywhere because you know we got a job to do here and and the grass doesn't take vacations But now people are are filling their staffs with more people paying them better And this has been a discussion in
our business for the past 5 10 years And you see it's a discussion you know it in almost every superintendent association meeting is you know where are we going with this how are we going to get this better and and um you know you're not going you know and I really feel that
you know especially in this area everybody who lives around here knows what the cost of living is in this part of the country and you're not going to be able to fill positions with the quality of people that you need to do what you're doing at the current rates that are being paid So it's like a 10%
bump Well yeah it's a 10 it's like a 10% bump but it's you know technically speaking it should be like seven really because you should be getting three Yeah So here we So I I look at this as a
whole I I look at assistant superintendent I and I you know I see Dana director of golf That's about basically the same same basically the same salary if we if we approve this right so I look at it from a what what
are his responsibilities you know what does he do that you know over what you do Steve where you know you are in charge of whatever you're in charge of he's in charge of whatever whatever he's in charge of Dan is in charge of the whole clubhouse So I see that number and
that's that's what I see I I don't know what Kevin's what his education is I don't know if he has a degree I don't know anything like that I think that should play a part of it And maybe you you discussed this I wasn't here for that discussion Um but I look at Dana and I look at
uh Isaac at 46 or 47 Um you know I know when I was here my last year was going to get bumped up to 39 and now it's it's at 46 you know uh 13 2013 Mhm So 12 you
know 12 years that's that's not much Um so I from my standpoint I see I see and maybe he he is deserving of a raise but I think you know why was the only discussion there and not maybe at the at the pro shop too well the discuss the
discussion needed to be made everywhere Agreed Kevin came to me and asked me about it So I told him I would do what I could do to move this ball forward Got it And I'm the only one that's been trying to you know and and
I'm going to try to move it forward for him I understand exactly what you're saying Adam And in each circumstance each each particular circumstance should have been discussed and agreed upon through some of the some of the characteristics
or qualities that you had brought up and some of the other things too I mean you know I got a I have a master's degree Okay But you know I would take 15 years of experience 20 years of experience in
this business over the kid who walked out of UMass in June with his four-year turf degree Sorry And I don't care if you worked at the country club I don't care No that 15 years of experience and who you worked under and the guys that I
know that you worked under and what they demand of people who work for them Plus he knows this turf That's the other thing he knows this particular piece of property So I think and again and I'll I'll say this at at the uh at the point
of um I don't want to embarrass anybody but to be quite honest with you I don't think this committee as a body over the past 20 years has done enough to push the issue of salary and compensation for the people who work here Um and you know
I've been here since 2001 If you take what I make on that sheet and you subtract what I started with and you divide it by the number of years that I've been here the average increase on an annual salary basis is
1.2% Or 1.3 somewhere you know close to there And you know I'm not saying you should get a raise every year but I mean let's face it the cost of living has gone up the cost of doing business has gone up You've got to understand to keep
quality people And you know you know again you know some people may criticize me for saying this but what happens down in the town hall let me entertain I mean you don't you don't pay them they leave Can't get anybody to come back 2013 we're probably doing a million dollars in sales Now we're doing $2 million in
sales And I just had the same discussion with Jamie and Jamie when I reviewed the budget saying exactly verbatim what you just stated that I've been we've been chasing this verbally and in writing
since 2013 Yeah And then 2017 2018 they had some type of wage and classification study where things took place or didn't take place And again we fell through the cracks And I told both Jamie and Jamie listen numbers don't lie Go to the
budgets look in Munice 10 years history cuz that's what you have And the numbers tell a very clear picture of what has transpired and you can assess the only you can assess the words that describe what it is in fact that transpired So um
to sit here um and and review this and I'm I'm on team Kevin Love Kev You got to keep him cuz let's face it Steve is not Benjamin Button He ain't getting any younger right so when Steve too
old it's like that Bill Burr come thing We're too young to die but you know what we're in the drop dead zone Some guys in our age is drop dead So hopefully that doesn't happen But we need to keep guessing So So my my
thing with with with Kevin was we picked him because regionally he was the lowest Yeah As a sup as an assistant We he There was a And again I mean I I understand what Adam's saying but Yeah I
do too I'm not I'm not right here with that But but we went to him because the opportunity for him to get out of here is a lot more out there than anybody else as far as
salaries go To my point I do this stuff So I I I know he is $8,000 at least below what he should be making for areas assistance I will chime in on that as well and
agree with that as well as state my position is far lower than that Higher than that Yeah Directors of golf don't get paid what I get paid And should I leave you're not going to find a director of golf to work for that amount of money Right
We have to start And I also want to state and still supporting Kevin Kevin and um Isaac have had little bumps in the last six or seven years and Stephen and I have not got a sniff of anything
except of flat colas and colas at best We definitely on Steven's behalf as well He is also underpaid for his level of expertise in in the market and obviously everything's relative Um and
we can only support so much However everybody is pretty much underpaid and you know I agree with that I mean it's and out of everybody I am underpaid by the most period So like D said you know since co whatever this this golf course
has I think surpassed what uh what it supposed to be doing and and the reward for that is is I don't zero So you know uh so I you got to start somewhere right so agreed you know Do we start with him with a with a plan of of reviewing you
know the pro shop this time next year you know and then you know Well I think you I think you should I whatever you decide to do you got to have a starting point And I mean obvious you know I'll say right here
like I said for 20ome years it's been 1.3% I'm not going to ask for a sec I would rather see you know I would let me put it this way I would sacrifice a little bit of my own increase so he could get something And what people don't realize out there
is the majority I mean the department heads in this town are basically forced forced to unionize Nobody wanted to do it N but they were still I still don't want to be And now the big the big nut that's going to come up is uh contract
renegotiation comes up this coming year And um that's going to be uh that's going to be a doozy So but this was this was discussed prior to that and I just think you know I feel that everybody should get adequate pay but in this particular
circumstance my personal opinion is the focus is here We get past this point with Kevin and then we then we sit down and we come as an organized front do our research find out what numbers should be and make the proposals for so is that so
is it more of a it's a contract negotiates negotiation is that when the time is to have that discussion or does the what does the golf committee have any say in that like I don't know how that well the golf the golf committee should have what the golf committee needs to do is come up with a recommendation from themselves when it
comes to negoti iation time You're going to have a representative from the board of selecting and you're going to have three two or three representatives from the union and they're going to negotiate contract and basically they have is called the collective bargaining agreement What they have in collective
bargaining agreement right now for the United Steel Workers for Department heads is basically what you had all along but now it's rejected Yeah That is it I mean nothing nothing nothing better
nothing worse just basically what you had written down now the next negotiation time comes up you know I was part of the the initial negotiating team there's a lot of things I didn't agree with but in certain circumstances I got overvoted that's the way it happens too bad uh next
negotiation thing comes up um I'm not getting old but I'm tired of arguing with people so I'm not going to be a negotiator next time so they And they can beat up the they can beat each other over there I'm tired of going to these meetings and they said I need I need a
5:00 in the morning meeting not an 11:00 in the morning meeting when I'm supposed to be doing work you know right So now that the union though is there it's formed I could not by anybody It's there Right So that does put certain constraints on what we can or can't do The timing for things it's supposed to
be collective bargained collectively That's exactly why it's called that I had brought this up only because the attempt to do this last year was before was really the attempt was also to kind of set the base for this going into the contract being in place Yeah And it
didn't happen And it wasn't really to single anyone out over anyone else but it was also like John said looking at it regionally it stuck out like a sore thumb in a way coming into it So we were trying to do it a year ago I'm not even positive that you wise it could be
allowed to be done now I really just wanted it to be back on the radar of the people who will be looking at the contract and do it because like our vote can enact this to happen but I wanted it to be more like a letter of support if we collectively agree to it just to say
"Hey don't forget that 11 months ago when all this was going down and the unit was being finalized This is where we recommended he start before it comes into place It didn't happen Here's 11 months later just trying to set around what we felt the base should have been going into that." And then if collectively with them and the other
departments that are in it they bargain collectively and typically in those everybody gets the same unless there are subdivisions within it or scales But you know this group gets three this group gets one and a half two and a quart whatever it may be that's what the group gets That's the problem So yeah I put
this on here to bring up 20 years to make it right before coming up to me Dana if if you make money you guys should get a percent of what we make But it doesn't work like that because of the whole town You
know we would never ask for that And I've explained this to you guys and you've been in the trenches with me You've been in the trenches with me and I've explained it to you We would never put our salaries before the success of this golf course And that's why we're in the position we're in because we're we
were willing to eat it and carry the torch and fight the fight build the brand build the model build the business Now you got it It's there Yeah So so now what happens so now let's remedy the problem Let's sit down and look at the
numbers Totally asleep It's just that it goes to the upper hand and it's how we handle it in the meeting Right So like a wholesale look at all of them Isaac you all of them I mean unfortunately at that point in time it does have to be done at
the point when collective bargaining opens up You want to look at it want to readjust it I was just trying to use this as a more like an FYI saying this is was recommended before this even place just about a year ago So before this even opens up and starts right
tries to maybe it's the base for him before everybody gets looked at hopefully again when it's the right time to do it So we'll see This is going to be a hu is going to be a huge negotiation slash discussion because as you alluded to in this particular instance there is no basis
from which to start You go to the police union they have this bloody scale with all this stuff You go to the firefighters they got this You go to ask me they got this They got nothing and the selectman was shot down having
in the initial negotiation in negotiation to come I don't know how they'll respond in the first negotiation They you know they they even I mean we were even looking at the uh the the job classification thing that Dane alluded to earlier that we spent all that time
instead based I mean in the toilet I mean it just in the in the time span prior to Mr He being an employee of the town we've had seven pros How many assistants have you had
uh three Seven pros Fortunately we've had seven very good pros We could have hit a black hole anywhere along the way if we don't remedy this problem And as you embark on your next level of success
you might be surprised with what you get Because 42,000 or $46,000 for someone to survive it's not going to cut it and you won't hang around long I just talk to him today and I was talking about progression of eventually Steven taking off me taking
off He's not even sure he'll be here if that transpires What are you going to do then if you don't take care of the house of the the warriors that are taking care of your house then what's that say about us or you or them well the other thing
too is you know reputation you know the word's out you know and the word will be out when when people you know retire and leave I mean you look at my I mean I've got a great group of guys You look at all those names on those lockers with the
exception of one every one of them has been retired for at least seven eight years Every name with the exception of two on that wall back there every one of them has worked for me for over 15 years They're a great
group of guys They do an excellent job And but I wouldn't have them if if they weren't retired I mean they they they and we've been able to make some progress with them you know salary rate over the past couple years but it was like pulling teeth Oh you can't pay that because the DPW pays this or somebody
else pays that That's all well and good I mean let them come to the table and argue I mean I'm right here right now I used to make $2,000 less than Dan and DPW He's in six figures now Look where I'm at So this is not the place to be
bargaining outside of this group that we just I got that D but I'm also saying that the point of this was do we feel because this is coming up at some point if we want to reaffirm a letter that was written a year ago is our trying to do with this because again we will
certainly support you at the right point in time that we can legally on this part as a group but that's for the point in time when that is opened up and your group is targeting as a group This we can't even we can't make this happen It was more do we recommend this
in the back of their mind because blow up right we wanted to happen a year ago didn't want the funds in the collector's thought Yeah I don't think they ever even took it to a level
Probably not They discussed that everything happened The union formed where everybody was and that just kind of kept him at that base So again there might be more things to discuss when that officially is the bargaining time Today is not that time We can't be doing
it on our own You guys are in a group that's beyond the golf course so it can't be just us anyway So I just wanted to bring up So I got one question before Has he said anything about where where this situation he's heated Oh yeah
Heated Yeah Yes Okay Kevin he Okay that's all I need to know All right So he he knows Oh he knows He hasn't sat back and just said "I hope it happens." No Well no I mean he has
I you know I feel bad about it because I haven't been able to do anything I've kept him informed I mean I sat down with again I'm I'm not going to say anything about anyone on television but I sat down on one or two occasions with
someone who explained to me that you know that this would be taken care of and I'm going to discuss it with these people and those people And I know you know other people are just as busy as everybody else but I didn't want to talk through the press And I hadn't heard
anything in in four four or so months So I'm just going to keep on bringing it up until somebody either tells me to shut up or we get a decision one way or the other He happened to come in I was reviewing the new health benefits with Isaac Just printed it He just happened
to be coming in as I told Isaac "Hey health benefits went up 10% 9.9 10%." He made the turn just as I said He goes "What did you just say?" I said "Uh health benefits just I I just printed it You want me to print up a packet?" I'm
not even going to repeat what he said And the conversation didn't last much longer Out the door went I'm not happy talking about each other So does I'm I'm open either way I just want us to talk about tonight I
mean does anybody want to make any sort of motion letter of support i said it's not going we don't have the authority to actually make it happen But do we want to just put on record our support of this any adjustment to this position if it were to
become viable or is this discussion enough to get it out there knowing that we can't make it happen is well you can't make it happen but you I strongly recommend that you make you at least make a statement motion number if you wanted to right now
is that oh right's it doesn't have to be the same number as last year it could be it doesn't have to be it's just meeting number I mean like Adam said and everybody said everybody in this town's got to paid We all know it So we got to start somewhere You're
right You know you're right So I mean we want to start with him and I think the point would be when the union negotiations open up but if we wanted we get this recommendation for him So we want to do that and I'll put in writing documenting our vote tonight
if we take it At least it's there with them Yeah I mean I'd make a motion that we support to recommend that we support a letter recommendation that we support
him starting We we support him salary salary salary range where yeah or close uh I'll second that motion that motion So John John said in the word range but you said 70 is so most of the
70 Let's put it at 70 That's fine I was thinking higher but 75 Yeah I hear you Sometimes you can't bite off so much I told Sydney that I would take the
notes once she left So me by Andrew by Adam Yeah Speaking of Sydney leaving I can interrupt but before you all adjourn at some point since you approve the minutes that needs three signatures on each one of the at least three signatures on the signature pages Okay
for the minutes I got a question we got back to all in favor All right Thank you I just wanted to I just wanted to make sure we had that done Lock it in All right John So if you were going to go to the Were
you going to go to the other one at 5:30 well I mean I can either stay here or go to the other one I'm I'm asking your opinion I mean the architect is there tonight so maybe it might be a good thing for at least one of us you know the number one
representative somebody if you go please ask him what happened to the fact that he and uh and the other architect were supposed to come and sit way back when supposed to talk with Dana and I and they never it never materialized well I
think initially was the initial problem was that they had not been they there hadn't been something signed or something they might they might haven't reached that stage yet possibly You didn't have a contract I talked to I talked to Tim Garish who is the golf
course architect with him So Tim He does have contract where John call them all up and tell them to come from over here We got enough chair They can't stay past 6:30 because I got No they like the
projector Okay Oh HDMI Thank you John I'll be over there soon All right Yeah you guys do everything Yeah All right I'll see you soon All right I'll see you there sir See you Thanks John All right So let's pull through these up
We'll back up a bit operations and stay connected that one can real quick Yeah Um as I stated last meeting the April forecast number is 224 We just hit the midpoint today Obviously we know had a lot of rain a lot of cold temperatures
We're either two full days of sales behind the uh the forecast or one day and about four passes So I mean there's a chance that we can catch it if the weather cooperates So but we are right now behind the eightball and we haven't
been uh behind forecast in a long time uh since precoid So that's food for thought Um pass sorry the season pass Uh are they up down they we're um actually so I just
sold three right before I left Uh a 60 round user So that's uh an extra three grand Um like do you think the rain and the lousy weather are Yes That's definitely coming So guys haven't really started this season yet So far in
April it's rained every weekend So we uh 18 and we probably had another four We got like 20 21 22 in on passes for for April So we usually hit around 30ish Yeah So we that that that's a quick hit
and that can happen I'm still waiting for a gentleman that usually comes in and buys about um two He buys a 60 and a 40 and he hasn't come in in the spring yet So that's that's a good number right there So there's a chance that we can close in
on it Um these next few weekends cooperate with us Yeah Refrigeration I just heard word today that I do have a vendor that is going to supply us with uh an outdoor fridge Um we're not going to have to lease or rent one And um
They're trying to establish the logistics of it It's not going to be as it's not a walk-in unit like we had last year but it's a crawling unit that'll suffice and uh we continue our outside operation without a hitch which is great That that piece of equipment is uh
instrumental Yes At the volumes we're doing the running back and forth from the trailer fridges and not to mention we just don't even have the space now to keep the amount of product get their exits You have them running up the street to your house to use your fridge
Um up the street that can cut through the field Exactly We have the upcoming maintenance Mondays 22nd We're paving We got 428 55 and then we're airrating 512 513 519 is a maintenance Monday as well Um
that's uh that's what those are a lot of days um heading into a point where if we don't catch the forecast that uh we may want to divert if we can and you know maybe scratch one or two of those if
we're chasing our number Uh I don't know It depends on the priority of what we're trying to achieve here whether it's um quality of turf or our revenue obligations So just putting that out there for you guys to discuss and bounce
around with and think it over um mentioned the golf cart contract with the town accountant that was supposed to transpire It isn't that in that number So I'll uh revisit that with her and no news on those things And the t- sheet
has been built out Our new t- sheet is a little bit more complex and tedious uh as you enter in you have to enter in everything separately So what I used to be able to do in like a half hour actually takes me 3 days now to load cuz I got to load every day individually for
preeason when we got leagues when we got outings Make sure all the the out the prices apply to the appropriate time slots and league spots Um but the whole season is constructed Um and outings are booked and right now we're just probably
accepting weekday outings if small groups of 24 or 30 want to have you know they call it an outing but it's just a a block of tea times So those are still available available to be had but pretty much our routing uh schedule is um book solid and that has been communicated to
Isaac and uh Steve as well that um we're book solid and the exploratory meeting is today at 5:30 That was the last thing I had making you aware of Anybody got any questions so yeah
so uh maintenance Monday So you Steve you're going 428 55 then aation 512 513 and then another maintenance Monday the following week is that is that so again this is new for me I don't know is that how we usually do this is that you
usually do try to do two a month I would direct if everybody needs to understand the necessity or the process through which I would direct you to the USGAA site and they have a significant
explanation there about the need to provide time for um maintenance work to get done Problem is I mean there are some I mean if you know I know tea times are set up a week ahead of time if the weather changes and I need to do
something different or I can fit something else in then there's a possibility that we could you know give a day back or or or not have it again I propose these The reason I propose them is if you want your quality of your golf course to get over here then you have to
start doing some of these things You can't just go around with the you know 25 year old or you know 10year-old equipment That's why I've been trying to build an equipment fleet here that that supplies what you're going to want to do You know you you want to push all the
you know you want to push people out Um you know and actually we didn't have a choice We had an outing this weekend um both days in the pouring rain and people don't see what that does to the golf course um from the oh well it's just wet
but it does you know they they took carts they drive they're supposed to be on a car path they drew drove all over the fairways they made a mess adjacent to the eighth hole all this stuff costs money and when you drive across the ground and it's and it's wet it gets
compacted turf doesn't grow and if we want to continue to make improvements we have to have some of this time That's why I proposed it Um and yeah there there might be some changes we can make in that I mean I'm looking at the 5th of May and maybe you know since the aation
comes after that that we can you know um dispose of the 5th of May and maybe even the 19th It all depends on what we're capable of doing But as I mentioned before the days of me showing up here at 4:00 in the morning and jumping on a sprayer are over I mean are just not
going to it's not you know it's not something that's the standard in the industry It's something I chose to do as Dan alluded to so we could build something Now we got it built I'm trying to maintain it and I'm trying to maintain it in a
logical logical approach and a logical step forward But and you know the other thing I mean we got to spray fairways you know if play catches us we have to stop They're not supposed to be on the surface and state you know Massachusetts law not me You need to drive They can't
be on the surface until the material dries on the leaf Now is there an evaluation of what we are doing is it mostly spraying is that what we're doing uh it's spraying It's aation Most of the one you know the once a month is uh I primarily set aside for the quarter inch
quarter time aation Um you know I could you know you could change the setup and do nine days one day nine greens one day I can you know I can get nine done before I get caught and then do nine the next But then again you know you always get that complaint Well you got these are different from those And you know I
know some guys do he does nine every week He's got nine first week nine second Would it behoove us cuz I think you would lose less money if you just closed for the day and got all your aiation done in one day rather than
losing the meat of the day two times You know what I mean from 8 to to 10:30 that's when guys are coming in in the morning If we to lose one of those it's it's better than to lose two of those You know what I mean and all you all you
would lose is the the leagues at on the second part of the day and that's at half the price cuz they're league rates So I mean I don't know are there options to be had where we can make this uh a little bit more efficient and and profitable cuz that's part of our job
It's not just to get the Yes Yeah Well the other thing you have to consider which you haven't considered yet is when I started working here the first tea time was 6:00 in the morning Yeah But nobody was coming which is why we stopped paying the labor to be here from 6:00 to 8:00 on the weekend on the
weekend Well the weekends it's always you know we always we always somewhat earlier Yeah But like I said I mean no I mean I don't know I mean I those guys that are here I mean I pull in here on a Saturday morning and I'm going out to change cups in the dark and there's guys
sitting in the parking lot Oh yeah Listen if we open at 6:00 you'll get here at 4 So if I'm just saying we open I wasn't I didn't wasn't able to finish the thought If we opened it 7 instead of 8 then if you you know say let me real
simple you open days if you go from 8 to 11 that's 3 hours If you do a tea time every 10 minutes right that's six t times an hour right And if you say huh nine well I mean how many tea times you
get an hourly Yeah rough Well just roughly six say and you have them all full A lot of times they're not But if you had them all full okay you know so you take six that's 18 3* 6 right 3 hours 16 times an
hour So you buy yourself an hour on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday That's four days And you have six tea times In each one of those four days that's 24 So you picked up six tea times in theory
Yes in theory But when the weather is not good and it's cool in April and it's uh 45 feels like 39 nobody's golfing and the T- sheet is dead from 8 to 9 So if you're moving up at 7:00 you're not going to you're not going to get those tea times back Well on those bad days
right and look what we you know look what we were doing the the beginning of this week when we had that bloody frozen frozen day after it rained Yeah we're we're sitting here We had you know so many people up there we know what to do with them Couldn't do anything with them because everything was ice I think what
we're talking about here though is them bunching up on each other It just looks like that's what's happening right here right yeah Yeah So five five May is is is is bunched up But then again the problem with May I mean everything I
mean you can't put a crab grass pre-emergent out in June because you blew it All right you can't get your first dollar spot application out in in uh you know in June or you you have to find what you're worried about early and we're just trying to do it If we don't I
mean I'll find a way to get it done whether we decide to do them or not This way you're not putting you know you're not violating anything that you're not supposed to be violating and but you're also picking up some time And again I mean I'll try you know like I said if I
look and if I'm ahead and I know the tea times are booked ahead then I can then I'll just throw one of those out like the fifth paving done 22nd Yes And and also too we also have that window before the leagues go out from Yeah
uh 1:30 to 3:30 the front tee is dead So you have a a 2hour window if on Monday on Tuesday and on Thursday every day you have a 2-hour window to do some applications if need be And if we need to go off on the opposite side that day
then we do it so that you can get the front side It's just not a question of time Some materials need to be watered in some don't here You get past 9:00 9:15 the wind starts blowing The wind gets above 10 m an hour I'm not going to
do an application because it blows all over the place and it you have drift and it doesn't get to the spot where you want it to be And let's face it I put I put together a staff of retired guys and school kids most of which who don't get here um you know till when they when
they're going to start 16th I got in 16th of June So right now you know everything needs to happen earlier and that's when you're limited And of course it comes to the end of the year and anybody who has vacation time left is
going to take vacation time I can't tell them not to take vacation time That's true The only person I can tell not to take vacation time is me And out of and and I have never taken more than a week vacation or two weeks vacation in the entire time that I've worked here And
I've had five And now the town doesn't want you know you can't have rest probably all these dates other than April 22nd for the paving and we need to take advantage of the only reason the 28th is in there because he's doing the burn The 28th is paving too this Monday The 22nd the 22nd
again I mean everybody asked me to get him get the paving done get the paving done in a day I sat down with Dan and I said when can we do this we were originally going to try the 21st but then of course I forgot 21st was a holiday So we're doing the 22nd And in order for him to get in there and pave
them he might not even finish on the the 22nd But at least he's going to do one first then he's going to do 10 and then 18's going to be left for last so that we can start off the first team If we can get the fifth and the 19th that's great or I would say one of if you as as
it progresses if you feel you can Steve let's see if we can open it up but if it's something well I guess I mean I can look I mean I'm looking if the numbers hit then we don't have to worry about it but if we're still behind well I can look at the I mean I can look at the 5th and the 19th see what I have on the
schedule and if I can get it done in parts or at other times then yeah we can we I I mean I'm I'm fairly confident we could probably do we could probably you know cancel the 5th Um will you wait on the 19th we'll just do the fifth for now
The aation if I can get everything done that I need to get done in those day that day and a half then then I'll then I'll wait you know and and there's some days where I can you know that uh that I can get out there especially with two 300galon sprayers that actually work um
and make you know make a difference So I was going to say the the uh we could see that the weather's starting to break and the course I'm getting a lot of compliments on the course the conditions right now even this early Um it's about ready to pop off So as soon
as we hit this 50° temperature Saturday sold out the whole day Sunday's Easter so it's sold out up until Easter kicks in which noon time So it's that So to answer your question we'll go over that I'll go over that
list go over see what I got scheduled and see what we can do about those in in May to give us um you know to to to lessen the uh the loss revenue burden there And of course on those on these days the course is closed till 10:00 Is
that what it is 10:30 10:30 So first te time is at 10:30 10 Yeah Right after 10:30 When you So on those Mondays where your first tea time is 10:30 do you have guys lined you have from 10:30 I know from 10:30 kind of to lead time is kind of
almost a slower time usually right you kind of have the morning rush then so much since it's packed up until we shut it down for 1:30 for the uh liver's end and they got like 85 guys and they go front and back Um no problem
But on Monday will we do that you know I I have I bring in my guy to to uh walk wash and gas CS and then um we just have him get ready It actually that part of it on Mondays works out for us cuz it allows them to gas almost the entire
fleet and get it ready for the day Um and I have to try and like stay ahead of it But um I my concern is if you if on Mondays Monday occasionally but more this is
what I was going to get to see if my concern is if we're not if we're going to stop missing our forecasts then we that looks bad upon all of us not just me I mean that's the whole operation So we have to keep that Listen Steve that's part of our responsibilities is Yeah But
if you know right now would it wouldn't be so bad if you know pardon my French if April didn't suck I mean this has been this has been terrible The weather's been cold Things aren't responding You know it's it's rained I think the other day the guy said it
rained uh 12 out of 14 days in the month on the 14th And the end of March was no present I mean the last time we had the temperature for Saturday is forecast to be close to 70 The last time we had that was back in November So it's a slow
start Once it kicks in it'll kick in And then that's the other thing you know once everything kicks in out there then then I got to you know I got to be ahead I can't be behind I can't be playing uh playing catchup So let's just commit to seeing what you
can do Really look at as we get a little bit closer to the fifth and see what we can do on that day and where we open it up a week in advance We can just know what Dan will know the week before that what you're thinking about that so he knows whether to open it or not that day Yeah Well I do like we'll look at that stuff and know for sure probably by the
beginning of next week at least with regard to the fifth anyway Steve is it is it less manpower that you have that you need this Monday because I just I Adam I'm trying to do more If I don't do more then I sit here If I do more then
conditions get better and people will like it and more people will come and your reputation gets better That's why I'm trying to do more I'm trying to use liquid fertility products on our fairways in a short window so our fairways are healthier as opposed to
putting one granular application down in June and saying that's it till August Um the other thing with growth regulation we're trying to keep growth regulation in tune with what they call growing degree days because the more growing
degree days you have the sooner the growth regulation wears out And if I get the growth regulation on a consistent basis I have a consistent height I have less clippings I have less of a mess What we're trying to do in general is improve conditions and step up our
programs And it's either two ways you can do that this way or let me hire you know six or seven more staff So you know do you think it's paid do you think it's paid off doing it doing this i think it's helped measurably Unfortunately
last year almost everyone we had it rained So it didn't make a difference on revenue because nobody was coming anyway because it rained on all the Mondays The year before it it helped and it it will help when we get behind or we get caught You know the committee's mindset for us
implementing this allowing it to be implemented was it's either going to cost you and lost revenue or it's going to cost you in real dollars and extra money or or extra extra people and time So it's so it's either an expense going out or revenue not coming in and what
was kind of like the less of the two evils was before we bring on more people on the payroll or Steve felt he could get it done in these hours Let's see what the outcomes were were from implementing this How much loss revenue do we think we were getting did some of those guys did they just not show up at
all did they wait a little bit late to come because they have Monday Mondays off and they wanted to play here you know what I mean it was like I guess you can say that yeah we're normally busy and all we lost 2 and 1 half hours of tea times but except did some of those guys show up at 10:30 instead did some go down the street so it's probably
somewhere in the middle but so then you know and then lost revenue is easier to scale back from time-wise than bringing on more people and yes that would be great in the big thing but it's also a little bit more difficult to scale back from if we're bringing on people and time and hours You know the
the mindset was if we had to moneywise this is the easier way also to go to script because you just don't do it You open up the teachings some money comes in If you have the people on there and say "What are we going to do?" Tom oh don't work this week We're trying to save a couple thousand bucks you know So
that's was the thought process going into it You know we're now in year two and a half of trying to do this and you know I think we'll just keep evaluating all of us now with new people Keep seeing what we all think of it Yeah Dave I just I just I've never I've heard of you know Mondays being the maintenance
day on a private course where the money's there I've never heard of a town golf course ever closed a golf course to do maintenance besides aation days I just I've never heard of it Maybe it's something that's new that's changing I just from No it all depends on where you
are Good some well I mean I'm just saying you know you know um you know nobody ever looked for gold in the bearing sea until somebody did then they found it Well you know the
problem with municipal courses and public courses is the ideology is beat the snot out of the place and that's it Well eventually after you beat the snot out of it your conditions run down and then nobody wants to come and then it's
oh this guy's not doing his job or that guy's not doing his job Conditions are a huge reason why people come and you look at it I didn't call the condition of the court bad ever unless you're never bad You do a great job Well we got we got to step you know you know I
had a football coach one time that said never settle for mediocrity I'm trying to keep on pushing up So we can keep So everybody can says "Wow I you know I'm going to go over there because they charge this much and then I can get just as good for that guy who's charging
100." And that is the ceiling that I'm hearing by the way is 100 bucks If we approach 100 bucks our rounds are going to drop That's I've heard from customers already this year They're like "As long as you're under 100 bucks if you you hit 100 bucks we're not cutting anymore."
Yeah Yeah So what is that rate on we're 67 67 weekday 80 on the weekend So like I said I priced us in the sweet spot again and we still we made a pretty big jump these last two years to go up Our competition actually went up more So again we stayed right in the sweet spot
Just that's how it works And and on you know Steve's defense here too the we're trying to build a clubhouse here Once that happens the course does need to stay tip top tip sharp Like you
know it can't go down So what he's what he's trying to do here you know should help out with that and hopefully more revenue Believe me it doesn't it doesn't it doesn't mean less work for us Oh no It just just allows us to have a little
bit more time without balls flying on top of you and guys you know you're you're trying to spray three fairways over and the guy drives his cart in front of the sprayer and expects you to stop and turn it off Well as soon as I stop and turn it off I got a big gap because there's no way on God's green
I'm turning it back on exactly where I turned it off Customer first Steve Huh customer first Well I when I'm on one fairway that's fine When I'm on another fairway that's fine It's the third one over That's
stretching People look crazy Oh yeah Awesome So that was the scientist Steve's brief me If I could Mr Chairman excuse myself to go to the facility here
Appreciate you guys Yeah Didn't mean to rant before I just put some It's good to rant occasionally Clear the air Put everything on the table All right Um a lot of a lot of words here but not
not too awful much to have to go over Um course conditioning wise uh we're in pretty good shape Um we bought the majority excuse me all of our part-time uh retired staff back in the beginning
of this week Um and we're into our almost up to our normal cutting schedule Um the colder weather and the rain has slowed growth down a little bit We're cutting greens 5 days a week and uh everything else we're on our 3-day a
week schedule Um normally that's the other thing about the growth regulators is it allows you to maintain that schedule Um I haven't done it here because we could never get it done but I used to cut fairways where I used to work on Saturdays Monday Monday
Wednesday Friday and Saturday Um we couldn't do it here but you know by using the growth regulators uh judiciously then we can skip Saturday and Sunday and we don't have to worry about excessive growth And again once we
get our fairways healthier we can make them a little bit tighter I don't know if that you know again you have to consider the golfers that you're providing conditions for um and whether or not tight fairways are going to help them not but we'll see how that comes out I know the question on everybody's mind is
probably how we're doing on the fourth green If you happen to look at the photographs that I provided you the first thing that's in there is a shot of two plugs This is a normal this is a practice that you normally do if you
come up with a plug looks like the one from 27 March You take it out of the green and you bring it inside You make sure it stays watered or moist and you put it heat and sunlight and see what happens So 27th of March
was uh when we took the plug The 11th of April is the bottom shot and you can see there is some growth but you're probably looking at about 15% maybe So given that that was the case we
started instituting recovery processes there really weren't recovering processes to start earlier because it was simply too wet and too cold They would have done nothing Um so what we did um is we took
quarterinch cing tines Um it's not really a a soil problem That's why we didn't use a big tine Um the idea was to open the surface up so we could get some uh some water penetration um and start
warming things up Actually if you'll notice in places that get somewhat wet you'll notice why is that wet spot so green well the so the moisture actually helps the soil to warm up Um so we took a quarterinch cing time We went two directions Um cleaned those up Then we
took a seating time which the which punches little holes about maybe a/4 of an inch deep into the surface We did that in two directions So basically we filled the green full of holes Um then once that was done we overseed it with
one of the newer varieties of bent grass in two different directions Um unfortunately the soil temperature has just started to eclipse 50° So that bent grass seed should be popping and we applied a uh starter fertilizer after
the seeding to actually get the the phosphorus and other nutrients into the soil kickstart the rest of the green And we'll be doing that uh starter fertilizer application uh a second time tomorrow If you look at
the second set of photos you can see the picture of the green that was taken on the 26th of March And you can see the picture of the green that was taken today So we do have some recovery Things are getting better Um and with this warmer weather coming I hope to be able
to you know throw the pin in that green uh next Saturday morning and um we'll see how she makes out Yeah But it's it's getting better Um I did have it was interesting I was going through these
photographs and I don't know um Dave you might remember um but back uh let me see if I can find it here back in 2022 that same similar situation
happened to the fourth grade but not quite as bad And you know I'm going to beat the drum again If we don't cut down those wonderful things sitting over there it's going to continue to happen and we have to have a significant cut
back One of the other things that I can do which I'm going to do this winter whether we cut a tree or not is we're going to buy a cover and we're going to cover that green and see if that can help I had about that last week Yeah I've got I mean you know covers are good
and covers are bad um the research is out on them Um hopefully in that particular circumstance we can add a little additional warmth with much might make a difference Um and the reason I say that is because the majority of the injury that we see out there right now
was what I term cold weather shock injury If you remember I think it was beginning of March we had snowstorm It's about 2 in maybe and then all of a sudden it started raining and raining And then the next day the temperature went and dropped I know for certain
because I came down that hill slid around the corner and cost me two grand on my truck and the front suspension tires and all that good stuff Um but that's what caused that to happen So if we can we can alleviate that by um
keeping that things just somewhat warmer and and covered we'd be ahead of the game But that's the plan We're we're making progress and I think we'll be I think we'll see a lot more progress if we can get our temperatures in in in higher degrees coming up this next week
Um I mentioned our part-time staff um our college and summer staff of which we only have one this year Um he's going to be back on the 19th of May But our high school staff um we have five Um they'll start working this weekend though We
work weekends Saturdays and Sundays And then once um they're out of school I think their their school is done the 13th of May so they'll be in starting uh regular shifts on the 16th Um we've charged the irrigation system
Um we replaced the uh the shut off or main flow control valve going out from the pump house to the field Uh the problem with it was that it was corroded on the inside and when you shut it it wouldn't shut and it wouldn't open all the way So that was replaced and we also
replaced the flow control Um and we're up and running Everything seems to be holding Uh we did have a few broken heads Um unfortunately at times when you're filling the system if you've if there's nothing but air in
there and you get that surge of water um it'll pop the head right out of the ground And we popped a couple of them out of the ground but we've replaced those and everything seems to be working We've we've fixed uh nozzles that weren't weren't working appropriately and so on So we're pretty good in that
respect Um our sprayer was delivered uh has been delivered Um we calibrated we tested it Um I took it out for the first time today to actually do an application Um uh worked quite well Um it's nice to be
sitting up a little bit higher It has a 20-in boom a 20 foot wide boom instead of 18 so it allows you to move a little bit quicker Um although I did find out that um no matter how new or better the machine is that 11th green is still a
pain in the rear end to try to spray There's just nowhere to go and you don't want to go off the back because that wouldn't be good But um worked quite well Um the occupation rate was where it was supposed to be So uh I think that was a a good move and um it'll help us
in the future Um I wrote down continued to just copy down some of the other pieces of equipment um that we had discussed in the past uh just to keep those on our minds as we move into a new budget year And also if you remember we
included the top two in our proposed article uh for town meeting in in addition to the funds to pay for the bunker project in the fall Um as you may have noticed when you came in the building it's a shame we didn't
have enough little bit of extra time cuz I'd like to grab that camera and give you a tour of this side and that side so you can see just exactly what it is I'm speaking about when we need additional storage space Our attempt is to try to take the
equipment and the equipment implements top dressers cedars slice seeders sweepers and so on and store them in the cold storage side of this building which is the right side and the new
building and use this side for equipment maintenance And as you can see we have no storage We have no inventory space We have our grinders jammed back into a corner and they should actually have
their own enclosed area Um and we have enough room to do it on this side if we're allowed to progress forward and construct an additional building And again the cost of that building is was estimated right now to be between 80 to
$90,000 Soup to nuts Um and just as a um comparative figure if you were to buy a new rough mower uh the the 4500 which we have now their list price right now is
825 So the one machine costs more or approximately the same as the building But I want to continue to mention that keep that on mind uh everybody's mind Um that's something that we're I'm going to want to uh find some way to get in front of the board of selection here um in a
couple months Um I talked with Dan um our DPW and he feels that between his staff and our staff and their expertise we can both um come together and and put this thing up without an issue It comes as a
package Um it's a clear span building it comes to you and it's it's not construction so much as it is assembly Um and I don't know if everybody read their email Um I do have a couple copies
here Um Massachusetts Golfs has what they call their club partner program What the Massachusetts Golf is trying to do is to get member clubs more involved and also for member clubs to use the
what mass off can provide to them Now this is something you know normally in in in the format of private clubs and in a lot of places too in public courses you have a men's golf committee or men's group and you have a women's group and
you have a representative from each one Um and you have inter club club championships that kind of thing they do Um mask off is providing this as a program which people can become involved
in Um this is a flyer that helps explain it I was approached by the uh the reps from you know the folks from mask off um primarily because I know one fellow Mark Gag known him for I don't know 15 or so years and asked me if anybody would be
interested So I passed this along One of the two things I will benefit you know if you look at um the new portion of the program um or green section grants um it's uh where you have a USGA you can
have USGA course consulting service or visit um they also the USGA is trying to push what they call their technology package which if you're not familiar with that is uh Deacon and the G GS3 if
you're not familiar with GS GS3 The GS3 is a golf ball It's an basically an AI golf ball that you can use to give you all kinds of fun information like speed consistency firmness and so on But in
order to get all that information you have to have the Deacon software have the G3 information downloaded into that is something to consider It probably cost you an initial investment of 3 to 5,000 And then each year software updates and
so on have a fee of somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 I believe The other thing that they've done and um the USDA has come out with their moisture meter Um moisture meters have been out forever Um they have one of their own Um uh I'm
personally don't think it's any significantly better or different than the normal moisture meter Although the de that moisture meter also downloads information into the did to the deacon Um so the other thing that I was
interested in when this was presented to me is what's coming next year in 2026 They have what they're going to call their MUN links program which is $50,000 a year where Masoff is going to provide matching fund
grants to a facility or club meeting the grant selection criteria and wanting to imple um wanting to implement prior year course reviews construction other things like that So it's an opportunity to get
um matching funds from Mass Golf I don't know if anybody interested I told my present I mean I don't think I'm the one to be the club representative I could be but um I'm sure Isaac takes care of the scoring and all that good stuff Um and
he would know better in in that regard I provided the same thing to he and Dana a couple actually when was the turf show fourth and fifth of March after the turf show So the week after the turf show so they're aware of it as well But I thought I'd throw it out there because I
said I would And then last but not least is car path work We all the tree removal that was necessary to be done has been done Um car paths as you can see if you've been here have been roughed out in the first 10th and 18th
uh holes and they have been uh the base material has been put in and it's been compacted and rolled Uh we're going to put asphalt down on the 28th or excuse me 22nd which is next Tuesday Um and then the 28th we'll be putting in the
ciring Um and hopefully you know without any interruption from mother nature everything and go fine and we'll be able to button all that up get rid of the ugly scars and and have some nice additions with regards to not only looks
but uh utility of the uh of those particular uh areas So I went through that kind of quick because I know you spent a lot of time on other stuff So questions or questions about anything else or
observations about anything else um I will uh did want to touch on I didn't put it here but the uh we hope to uh have the driving range T open starting the end of next week I think probably Friday and then we'll look to have
that a different schedule Uh we we were Friday Saturdays and Sundays Um we'll probably implement a schedule um you know from Tuesday through Sundays give us you know from a certain period in the morning till the afternoon um to get more utility out of it Right now with
all the bloody rain the the middle of it just soaking wet I mean it's you you walk across it and you and so on you get some wet feet and then um so other than that and then as far as the putting green goes and all the those
wonderful little cups um again we'll probably probably look to you know once I get a little bit more recovery in the front spot where everybody walks on then we'll probably look to do that you know transition probably to maybe four cups
and two of the uh existing posts I still like the idea of being able to move the pin So if you you know when the cup's here go anywhere but when you you have a flat putt then you move the pin over here and I can take this angle and I can move the pin over there So we'll
probably go four and two four holes two pins If the four holes probably get worn out too much then we'll probably go you know go to five or maybe six So we don't need the motion cups No I I know I know it's coming I better jump on it first of course And
just you know with with the way the weather's been in the amount of time and stuff um you know it Oh yeah There were other things that I felt were more pressing Oh yeah Um to get squared away We had to get the irrigation fixed We had to get uh um you know some other
things taken care of Um and granted I'm going to be hopping on the cups and the driving range before I get to the bunkers but I don't have the labor to do a lot of that stuff right now anyway So how about 30 yards down on one you know where you're stopping you know that
little curve the car path Could we do another patch like we did on seven or is it not worth it well I I stopped um Well you can do anything you want to with with a car pass I stopped where I did on the car path in the first hole because there was a long section going down They
looked perfectly fine You didn't see any reason to tear that up Once you get to the bottom of that that's what I'm saying Then yes Um but and I talked to Dan about that The reason we didn't do anything there is because we still have to Oh we still got trucks We have to go
through the woods We have to get that road established through the woods so we can get to the second T so we can fix that one And the other thing I wanted to do is when we put that road in I want to change that so that car path doesn't go like this Kind of straighten it out a
little bit Give us a little bit more room around that bunker so we can clean it up and cut it I was just Yeah but that's that's why because Dan he was already to go straight through the woods I said "No I don't I don't have the money Stop right." like you told me on 18 where you wanted to straighten that out but that's for future Yeah we we I
think it would be better served um to you know redo the car path at the same time you know we want to redo the bunkers Makes sense Cuz one of those bunkers on 18 the the all it is is a water pit Every time it rains there's no place to drain I mean the bunker goes
down like this and the surrounds are 2 ft higher than the bunker I don't know who came up with that idea but not a very good one This is looking good Yeah looks good Rob if we like it early if the weather cooperates off to a good start what we
can do the weather well I mean if if we get some I think next week will be a good play week Um you know and again if if it continues to go that way um but really the weather's been crummy and it it's slowed things
down And not only that I mean who wants to go out and play when it's rainy and windy and 40° plus now the masters is over So now everyone has that itch All right So I think we should pick a
next meeting Yeah So you're in May 15's good 15th is a Thursday Mhm What do you think Dave i'm good with the 15th I'm I know you're busy You're not good No I I I have a conference during the
day down the Cape that day So I'm just not sure what time I would be back home to come on the 15th But on the following week we're going to be we're going to be out of town So 15th is a better shot than the 22nd I'm good 15 22 and 29 but 29 might be
too far Yeah 29 I'm You could try eight Yeah It's 3 weeks right 1 2 3 Mhm Yeah the eighth is fine with me We want to meet again in three weeks Let's just see how everything's going with the course Sure The eighth Mondays Yeah true
I tell you you know the best thing in the world for golfers is to bring them out at 5:00 or 4:30 or 5:00 in the morning and put them in a cart and have them go around and see what everything that happens before they actually get out there to hit the ball
So we want to now that the weather's better why don't I start eating here too i like it Sure I know you got it's on my way home anyway I want to hear All right So maybe that's the other thing too I mean if in fact there was somebody who had a question
about something or wanted to look at something you could let everybody know two or three days before the meeting and you know you could write out and look at it Mhm I mean you you you easier to talk you we could talk a lot in here but to physically go out and look and say okay
well I mean for instance I mean yeah I'd like to you know take Adam and Isaac out there and say okay guys we have 29 acres of fairways the first fairway is humongous I mean nobody I I sat out there cutting the first fairway the other day for 35 minutes and three
groups nobody hit the fairway I could I didn't have to stop but reason I is maybe we can bring it in here Maybe we can bring it in over there Maybe we can you know make it you know give us a little bit more rough so the carts don't wear everything out but also you know
give it a little bit more character than just a big wide open blob like the 14 fairway It's just one big It's also less work Yeah For your guys it's less it's less from the standpoint of fine cut turf you got right like you did on that
That's That's bringing it in you know And when we got That's the other thing too Screws me though I got to keep on hammering that We hammer that and hammer that and hammer that with seed It's It's eventually coming in I'd like to be able to top dress it I like the wide I don't
think it's wide enough One in the woods I'll tell you what if it's not wide enough put the driver in the bag take out the 3-wood and just you know I actually watched a couple golfers use their brain during the Masters and they looked and they said "Yeah if I hit this
drive so I'm going to hit a 3-wood off of here I'm not going to hit that thing down there." Masters was far It's been a few years but there was points be you know if as a group we had questions we would you know start the meeting off by physically going out there and seeing something So then I
think this makes sense too As long as the weather's fine and the building's open just be here Yep So 8:30 or 4:30 on May 8th Yeah All right So there's a motion to adjurnn I'll make a motion to adjurnn I'll second it
All right All in favor all right [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]