Meeting with Round Lake Area Park District 8-27-02

[CEValkyrie]

Jim & other club members will be meeting with Round Lake Area Park District to discuss a number of topics about disc golf & the Fairfield Course on 08-27-02. I'll post tomorrow night & let you know what happened.

[mirth]

I will be there

[mirth]

As I understood it, we may not absolutely need to wait for next summer for them to put any money into the course. Assumably their budget is like any other corporation's budget - if it looks like they may still have dollars at the end of the fiscal year they will spend them otherwise they risk the budget getting 'shrunk' for the following year.

Also in all fairness to the GCDGC Jeff did say that for the first year or so the club did do as they promised. It was shortly after then that they vanished.



I think we can commit to a 6 week schedule for trash pickup out at the course. I'm pretty sure that we'd be able to do better, maybe even monthly. However it would be better for the club's image if we promised 6 weeks and tended to be closer to 4 or 5. I think the easiest way to deliver on this would be through leagues. Instead of cleaning beforehand or during the round, bring bags along and as you play distribute the bags in strategic locations: one for every can, one or two every couple holes. If the parks dept were to put out more cans then the amount of random trash around the park would begin to diminish and eventually all we would have to do would be empty the cans and put in a new liner.



One other item I think is key is for the club to be able to put stuff under the plexiglass. Ideally if a hasp type lock were to be installed and a common key made so Jeff and/or Keith and anyone else necessary could have access to the inside if the need arose. This way we could place information regarding the course, the club, leagues, upcoming cleanup days, area businesses that sell plastic, other park dept. events, etc. and not have to worry about how likely it is that someone may tear down the info. Today when Brett, Jay, and I played the course the 'secure' area (under the plexiglass) had its one wood screw holding it closed ripped out through the backboard. Granted, any kind of way we use to keep that door closed is only as secure as the tool that a person would use to pry it open, but a 1 1/2" wood screw going thru 1" of pine (frame) and 1/4" of plywood (backboard) is pretty easy to rip out.



Anyhow, I got off on a rant.

Teesigns? Would be nice.

Other than dirt rut teepads? Great! (even just hauling in dirt & leveling the existing tee areas.. Maybe some wood chips to go on top of the new dirt?)

More garbage cans? Definately needed.

Chain upgrades? Sure, those discatchers are beeotches.



Seriously though, my order of items for the proposal for the upcoming board meeting in order of highest to lowest priorities:

1) More trash cans

2) Alter layout of front nine to resurrect the 3rd hole

3)Tee signs, don't necessarily have to be the nice DGA ones (but it would be sweet!)



Anything else is fluff IMHO.

[jim]

I've already begun the proposal to RLAPD. Here's the way I believe the situation will go down over time:

This year:

1. Finish proposal;  keep communicating no matter what.

2. WE grade/level teeboxes. RLAPD provides crushed limestone (better than dirt and no concrete allowed for now); DISContinuum does the work.

3. We get access to bulletin board/plexiglass and post maps and other info.

4. We commit to a number of trash days and do it.

Next year:

1. Re-layout course, including sinking baskets in deeper concrete; may also include upgrading anchors/collars if RLAPD pays for them.  RLAPD should pay for concrete; WE do the labor over two weekends. May include chain upgrades and minor basket repair.

2. Host 2003 World's Biggest at Bevier Saturday and Round Lake Sunday.

3.  Who knows?  :-)



I think this is a great start!  Athough the RLAPD committed next to nothing, who can blame them after being so frustrated by the last club? Let us show them we mean business. If we do a good job, who knows - maybe they'll "find" the funds for new equipment or a new course!  keith gave me a very positive feeling when we spoke privately. They didn't want to offer too much too fast.  But they like us already and if we continue to "wow" them (like we did today with SIX club members showing up for a mid-day intro meeting), they'll start opening up.

THANKS to Barry, Brett, Paul, Jay, and Mirth for taking the time off and being such a strong portion of the club!!!  THANK YOU ALL!

[CEValkyrie]

6 of us from DISContinuum met with Executive Director Jeff Nehila & Superintendent of Parks and Planning Keith Neitzke. We talked for a couple of hours. As of today there will be no changes to the Fairfield Course. There were several ideas we discussed. They said the Greater Chicago Disc Golf Club were the initial group to write a proposal to have the course installed. The RLAPD purchased the baskets & the GCDGC installed them. Since then they have not heard from them. The park district never committed to making this course permanent. This is one reason they do not want to install cement tees. We suggested the rubber fly pads like the Baraboo, WI Course. The RLAPD is buying land & getting property from building contractors in Round Lake. There is a possibility that the course could be moved to another park. They have thought about using the park for soccer fields & camping. There are camp sites there now but no one uses them because there is a disc golf course there. Another possibility is to alter the course & put more holes back in the woods west of the park. They own 6 acres back on the other side of Squaw Creek. This way the course would be out of the way of the camp sites. They took the bridge down that the GCDGC made because it was not approved. They may install it in the future if the course would extend into the woods. The land is not ideal for ball fields but they have considered it though. We listed some items we would like to see done in the near future. 1. Imporved Tees 2. Signs 3. More garbage cans 4. Chain upgrades. We are going to write a proposal that they are going to take to the board. Write now capital is a problem. Their financial year has been planned & $ has been assigned. We may have to wait untill next summer to get capital funds directed to Fairfield. Another problem is the park district staff. They have 6 field workers that have to take care of all the parks. ONLY 6! We now see why not much gets done at Fairfield. The park district even admitted it. They said right now the Fairfield Course is "freefalling". They thought the GCDGC was going to do more for them. That is what they want. They want someone committed to helping them with labor. We are going to write a proposal & submit it to the board on 9-12-02. We'll play it by year from there.

[CEValkyrie]

Here is the PDGA Discussion Board about Fairfield

http://www.pdga.com/discus/messages/40/6302.html?1030588832

[CEValkyrie]

One thing I forgot to mention to the park district is the areas that are mainly dirt. #7, down the hill & all the wooded holes. I thought maybe we could get them to bring in wood chips to spread them. That would be an easy job for us. (We need to remove the stumps in the woods) Also, I was talking to a guy at Round Lake about holes 10 & 12. He had a good idea to lay a path of wood chips through the swamp so you could walk through even when it is really wet. I thought it would be a good idea. What do you guys think?