It’s been awhile since we’ve communicated via this blog, but it wasn’t due to lack of activity to report. Actually there was so much was going on, it was difficult to try to quantify it at any given time and report it without feeling like I was missing something. Plus there was just a lot of planning and coordinating underway. All of which is culminating in this communiqué from me to you!

Whew!

First of all, I hope your summer has treated you well. No matter what is going on in our crazy lives, the most important things are our health and happiness, and I certainly hope that you are enjoying your time away. That said, I also hope you are looking forward to your return!

This summer was not about one big project, but rather a very diverse number of smaller projects combined with a coordinated effort to bring in extra reciprocal revenue to offset our rainy day revenue losses from January. I must tell you that we are getting a significant amount of repeat business over the summer from outside groups (charities, golf associations, and social clubs) who LOVE our course, our staff, and our food. Thank you Jeff, Josh, Steve, Gregg, and all of your staff. So far, so good!

So let’s get to it, shall we?

During the first summer closure, we began the next phase of our golf course landscaping project. Christine Hamilton and Mary Ann Gullotti made numerous tours of the course with the staff and O’Donnell’s Landscaping and created a plan to plant natural, colorful, and economical selections to beautify the beds surrounding the tees, fairways, and greens. We know you will appreciate the reorganization and additions that can be seen around the course.

We also identified areas to replace soft paths with concrete. To date, we have replaced all soft path on #1, certain washout prone areas on #2, flood prone path approaching the green on #8, a short path beyond the tee boxes on #10, washout area on #12 just before the green, and perennially difficult path on #18 past the tees. In addition, we removed all the coquina between #13 and #14 cart path and replaced it with pavers, and then pulled out all the old worn landscaping and replaced it with new plantings. It looks great!

Rock walls were constructed on #4, #14, and now #18, and we are now seeing more balls staying up on the greens instead of rolling off into the water!  I offer an additional big “THANK YOU” to all the residents that had to endure the sound of steel on rock as the operator smoothed each one out so it would fit perfectly with the base rocks.  Thank you to all the June golfers and Whisper Creek residents for dealing with the detour on #14, which involved rerouting all traffic down Creek Branch Lane to #15 entrance.

Around the clubhouse, the Pool Bathrooms were updated to bring refreshing new life to an otherwise very bland outdated look. Bar stools in the Grill were reupholstered. Gorgeous new pool furniture has been ordered so that we can replace worn, ten-year old chaise lounges, chairs, and tables…should be installed in late September. The old single serve ice and water machine at the Turn has been replaced with two tall, thin profile ice and water dispensers providing more capacity that can serve twice as fast (helpful during shotguns etc). And the clubhouse AV system has finally been rebuilt and simplified, ensuring that all connections are direct and controls are integrated into a user friendly format that eliminates some of the redundancy that has caused problems in the past.

At the tennis courts, a new Bulletin Board has been installed, along with paver base and pavers under the bike racks. And lighting has now been significantly improved at the tennis courts and parking lot. All lamps on the poles from bocce and tennis to parking have been replaced with new, much brighter, and more energy efficient LED fixtures. Plus we painted the old stained and rusty poles, including those street poles throughout the community. And the bag drop steps were rebuilt to make them safer for the staff servicing your clubs, and the golfers who take those steps to the practice area.

Another very positive enhancement for our members is the result of a coordinated summer-long effort by Spring Run, Copperleaf, and Lighthouse Bay to put our gatehouse contract out to bid, with a goal of improving services and reducing cost. I can say with the utmost confidence that our memberships will all benefit significantly from the time and effort put forth in interviewing companies, reviewing proposals, challenging claims, studying software systems, and finally deciding on a new security company and visitor management system to implement within all three communities. Not only did our hourly cost of guards go down, but we will be serviced by a new company, Securitas. And we will be integrating a new visitor management system that will track guests better, allow owners to manage their visitors easier, and also provide video monitoring overnight. This will improve confirmation of credentialed access during off hours, as an actual guard will see the person requesting access. I could go on and on here, but that’s for another time. Let’s just say we just made some darn good improvements!

Also ongoing is a website redesign that continues to improve user-friendliness and provide a cleaner, sleeker look. Launch date is October.

And in case you kept wondering why we put the dark stone at entry landscape beds, wonder no longer. The incorrect installation is finally being rectified with the replacement of those dark gray stones with the original selection of lighter and much more attractive stone to accent the bromeliads.

Of course, numerous repairs and routine replacements have been ongoing all summer. Most things you won’t even notice, but if they hadn’t been made, you would!

Everything is in place for season, and we are excited for you to experience the changes. Enjoy the remainder of your summer, and we will see you back soon!

Mike