Facility is nearly out of debt after paying off more than $100,000 in a year

The Powell City Council unanimously approved reimbursing the Powell Golf Course $22,103 for work that was done on the course’s irrigation tanks during the council’s meeting Dec. 21.

Powell Golf Club president Jerry Herweyer gave the council an overview of the year, highlighting how the facility replaced the building’s roof, paid off about $100,000 worth of debt and generated about $30,000 through crowd funding.

“We paid off a ton of debt this year, thanks to the city and the crowd fund, plus donations,” Herweyer said.

Income for 2015 was over the budgeted amount and expenses were under the budgeted amount, Herweyer said.

“We had a fairly good year,” Herweyer said, noting that the total rounds played for the year was down by 287 from last year. “We were down 290-some in May, not too good of a May, but we played catch up.”

Revenue for the golf course was down by $28,439 — but, that’s not including the crowd funding revenue. The golf club’s net income was down by nearly $21,000 from last year, he said.

But, total expenses were down by about $23,000 from the previous year at the golf course. Payroll went down by about $18,000 and course expenses also dropped by $13,500.

Throughout 2015, the golf club bought two Greens mowers and 10 sets of batteries for golf carts, put a new roof on the clubhouse, and repaired the driving range fence and the irrigation tanks.

The roof replacement was mostly covered by insurance due to damage from hail, Herweyer said.

The irrigation tank repairs were what brought the golf club’s representatives to the City Council on Monday evening.

The aging irrigation tanks were sealed two weeks ago using a method similar to a spray-on truck bed lining. Each tank was designed to hold 1,000 barrels of water; one as a settling tank and the other as a holding tank.

“They have been deteriorating for years,” said club member West Hernandez, who estimated they were built in the 1960s. “It has been a situation coming down the road.”

There was 5 feet of silt in the settling tank and 3 feet in the other tank, said club member Doc Acker.

“It was like concrete ... all kinds of slag was coming out and wiping out our sprinklers,” Acker said. “We had to take the tanks apart and dig all of it out.”

A total of nine dump truck loads of silt were removed from the tanks over the course of a week. 

Once the silt was removed, the interior of the tanks was sand-blasted and 47 holes were patch-welded shut before the interior coating was applied.

Now that the tanks have been cleaned out for the first time since 2004, they will be flushed out each fall.

The coating is expected to last 10-15 years, Mayor Don Hillman said. But Acker said those numbers were based on holding acidic fracking fluids, so the golf course should get more longevity by just holding water in them. The process can be repeated once the coating wears out.

Councilman John Wetzel recommended approval of reimbursing the project’s cost and noted that original estimates were higher than the actual cost.

 “This is a damn good idea — excuse my French,” Hillman said.

Looking ahead, the golf club will host the Wyoming State Men’s Senior Tournament in 2016. The tournament is anticipated to bring in 120 golfers, primarily from outside the area, Herweyer said.

“That should help the community,” Herweyer said.

The club also has plans to focus more on youth golf, advertise more and purchase a used rough mower.

“It was a good year out there and we are looking to build on what we got, and we appreciate the city helping us pay off the debt,” Herweyer said. He added he would like to discuss later the possibility of continuing the city’s support of the facility and using those funds to set up an emergency savings account.

“Reduction of debt and fundraising has put you in the situation we have asked you to get into for a while, and it is awesome,” Wetzel said, noting that he was looking forward to discussing building up the golf club’s reserves.