Cooler Stands Complete

After 19 days of labor, the cooler stands are finally complete.  Rick and Johnny placed a great deal of thought and work into the restoration of these necessary accessories and deserve all the credit.  The wood and stain now matches other accessories on the golf course such as our tee markers and benches.  We have spend a great deal of effort over the last few years of making sure we have continuity throughout the course, whether its with retaining walls, stairs, or course accessories we have made a conscious effort to upgrade and maintain a high quality and standard throughout the property.  

We estimated new stands would have cost a minimum of $8000, we were able to purchase the identical wood for $1500 along with additional hardware upgrades.  So for $2000 plus labor we were able to improve the existing stands and utilize existing operating budgetary funds for their completion.

Quite the improvement from the old stands

Updates to the Storage Area

Winter is a great time of year for our department to analyze our maintenance facility and look for areas where we can improve an update the overall appearance and functionality of our space.  One area that we have been looking to improve for a few years is our back storage area.  This is an area that was once shared space with the Golf Staff.  They utilized this area in the summer for washing and storing range balls.  Now that they have a new building we have the space to ourselves.

The original shelving was installed in 1997 and was in great need of replacement.  That shelving has been replaced with stronger more supportive metal shelves.  Since this area is where water coolers are cleaned and filled with water and ice the main purpose of the shelves will be to store the coolers.

What might be our best addition to the room is our new washer and dryer and storage cabinets.  Typically tee towels and other assorted items that need cleaning are sent to the club house.  This is not always convenient for us and we wanted to have more control over when the towels are cleaned and where they are stored.  Nick was not only able to find a used unit on Craiglist but he completed all of the necessary plumbing and venting work.

A number of years ago the club was in need of a new cardboard compactor, instead of trading the old compactor, we took it off their hands and have be utilizing it in our facility for a number of years. The compactor is great to have in the building and we know all cardboard is being properly recycled.

Rebuilding Cooler Stands

This winter we decided it was time to rebuild our cooler stands.  We've estimated the original stands were built over 25 years ago when Dan Hanson was the Superintendent.  The wood slates have been replaced numerous times.  The last time the wood was replaced was about 10 years ago.  At that time we utilized cedar.  The wood has held up well over the years.  Annually the wood has been stained and the metal has always received a fresh coat of paint but the time has come to upgrade the quality and appearance.

This time we felt it was important to replace the wood with the identical wood that is used for the benches and tee markers.  Our goal is to maintain a consistency with the products we use on the course and create a clean well maintained look, not only to the playing surfaces, but to the course accessories as well.  If we were to purchase the cooler stands that are made with the same wood type, costs would exceed $850 per stand.  With 9 stands needing new wood our costs would exceed $7600. We were able to purchase the identical wood for only $1500.  Of course we will have a good number of our own man-hours into the project, but there is a certain amount of satisfaction that comes from doing the work in house.

The old cooler stands

 Freshly stained wood

Metal bases had years of paint stripped and sandblasted off. Primer has been applied and now await a fresh coat of black paint.

Assembly of the the 9 stands will take some time but when completed will have all new hardware and will be as good if not better than ones purchased from a supplier.