Pierz City Council approves hiring summer laborer to help finish new nine holes at Pierz Golf Course

The Pierz Council approved hiring a laborer for the summer months, to help complete the new nine-hole expansion at the Pierz Golf Course. It is planned to open for play in 2024.

The request from Dave Fischer, who is overseeing the project, was for someone who would help seed, carry and lay irrigation pipe, handle a shovel and that sort of thing. He estimated the labor would start in mid-April and run to Labor Day weekend, averaging about 40 hours week, weekends if needed.

At $20 per hour, he estimated it would cost about $16,000 for the summer.

However, that would be in place of having the heavy equipment operator do that sort of work at $85 per hour, or the irrigation people at $65 per hour, he said.

He provided a schedule of when items would be completed, which wouldn’t happen as shown, due to the fact that he started with an April 1 date. It’s unlikely that will happen with the snow remaining.

“We’re pretty accepting of the fact that we will not start April 1,” he said.

One concern Fischer had, and a reason he felt the help was necessary, is that there is a very tight schedule for seeding.

“You’ve got a window of about Aug. 15 to Sept. 15 to get all the seeding done,” he said. “Which means we have to start seed prep before that, which means we have to have irrigation and all the other things ahead of that, so if we do start getting behind, we will be working Saturdays.”

The person hired would have to be flexible and “at our beck and call,” he said.

“The problem is going to be our help that we get from our city staff, which is the park complex staff,” he said. Hiring someone else would alleviate that issue.

Fischer said he had planned in his original budget, to hire someone locally to do this type of general labor.

In addition to the extra help, which Fischer described as “ideal for a college kid,” he said that a staff member from the regular golf course crew would be needed, and some help from the superintendent, Zach Baert, as well, especially on irrigation.

Baert helped last year, Fischer said, and it would be important for Baert to know “what’s in the ground next year.”

He knew it would be a problem in the spring, Fischer said, but felt it was important to stay on task so the course could open in 2024.

Fischer said he was in the process of getting new quotes for fertilizer and seed. He had ordered all the fertilizer and seed needed, but some changes were made in the design since then. Those changes mean there will be less rough and more green space, which is why the irrigation costs went up a bit, he said, and why seeding and fertilizing costs went up a bit.

“It’ll look a lot nicer and you won’t have to work to get out of the rough,” Fischer said.

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