This spring the Hardisty Lakeview Golf Club will move ahead with replacement of their 40-year-old irrigation and sprinklers.
Board member Anita Miller says that last year the club discovered a lot of leaks in the irrigation lines, and when those lines were dug up for repair, some of them just disintegrated.
“We turned the water on last April, and just started having issues non-stop.
“There were multiple leaks discovered, the lines were so old,” She says that the issues continued as the season wore on.
“The board met to discuss our options. We were made aware of a new provincial grant and immediately applied. But we knew that it would only cover half of the cost at best. The cost of replacing the 40-plus-year old system’s initial estimate was in the $700,000 range.”
Miller says that a fall fundraiser got the project off the ground when they raised $45,000. Added to that were other grants. The Battle River Community Foundation granted the group $5,000, and Vision Credit Union another $10,000. But what really put the project on the table for 2025 was receiving the Province’s new Active Community Initiative grant, in the amount of $305,000.
Miller says once the board found out the ACI grant application had been successful last December, a special sub-committee was formed to plan out the project.
The ACI grant is a 50 per cent matching grant, but Miller says there’s no shortage of volunteer labour or volunteer equipment that should add up to a substantial amount on top of the funds that have already been raised, as well the board’s reserves, along with expected casino funding.
“That’s the big job right now,” she says, “tracking the volunteer’s hours and equipment hours.”
She says the plan is to start working on laying the new system this April, if possible, hoping to have the work completed in a few weeks, in time for this year’s opening season.
Miller says the old lines will be left as is in the ground, but any above ground parts will be removed.
She says the new system will have one station for operating the entire system, and it will be located indoors, unlike the present system where each zone has an outdoor manual control. “This will be electronically controlled, and can be monitored from a phone.”
Miller says the parts have already been ordered, as the initial quote would expire March 15.
She says that any supplies that could be sourced locally were purchased where ever it was possible.
Look for the club’s opening this season, as they may do something special to mark the installation of the new system, Miller says.
She adds, “And we should be good for another 40 years or more going forward.”
Leslie Cholowsky
Editor
