A practice green at Oak Knoll Golf Course is brown from the drought. [Jamie Lusch / Mail Tribune]
Ashland Parks and Recreation commissioners came together for a study session Wednesday to discuss falling revenue and the fate of the imperiled Oak Knoll Golf Course.
“We’re seeing revenue drop off a pretty good amount. I’m not ready to report on that yet because those numbers aren’t technically final,” Parks and Recreation Director Michael Black said. “People are choosing to golf elsewhere.”
Parks officials have done their best with a limited water supply, Black said.
Watering on the course has been strategic and thoughtful, but with Talent Irrigation District running only from July 2 to Aug. 19, it was too little too late. The greens have largely been sizzled to shades of russet, sepia and ocher.
The course has been instructed not to use city water, Black said, and there is no money for parks to purchase water elsewhere.
The grass around several holes on the course is brown. Some areas of the course are mottled, with patches of green scattered among cocoa-colored turf.
Once TID turned off for the season in the middle of August, there was an attempt to water the course with its own pond water. That water is now nearly exhausted.
“We have about one more day’s capacity left in that pond,” Black said.
To continue watering the course with the pond water, Parks and Recreation would have to refill it with water purchased from the city — $18,000 to $20,000 would net them enough water for a little over a month. But that money would have to be found somewhere, he said.
Temperatures are projected to be milder next week, he said, and fall rains will come eventually.
There have been meetings with other golf courses, Black said, adding that Oak Knoll’s situation isn’t unique.
“Other golf courses are facing similar situations. We recently met with Centennial Golf Course. They’re in search of a much bigger supply of water from Medford Water Commission because they don’t have the water to water their course right now either,” Black said.
Parks Commissioner Jim Lewis said it’s time to make a long-range plan.
“Since it looks like most of the greens are pretty much toast, if we don’t get good snow pack and can depend on TID for next season, we need to talk about how we’re going to keep this thing floating,” he said. “It would seem to me foolish to try to reclaim some of these greens if we’re going to be in the same situation next year.”
Black agreed and said next week’s Parks and Recreation meeting will feature some proposals his staff have requested from private contractors. There are some interesting models out there for use of the space for more than just a golf course, he said.
“We do have to acknowledge that maybe it’s not us in the future who’s running the golf course. If it is us, we do have a restricted budget,” Black said.
For an agenda of the Parks and Recreation Commission’s Sept. 14 meeting, see ashland.or.us/Agendas.asp?Display=Agenda&AMID=8143
For more information about how Ashland parks has worked to meet its irrigation challenges, see ashland.or.us/Page.asp?NavID=18222.
Reach Mail Tribune reporter Morgan Rothborne at mrothborne@rosebudmedia.com or 541-776-4487. Follow her on Twitter @MRothborne.
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