Mills Creek Golf Course opens new cart path, adds mower; irrigation panel installation expected

Mills Creek Golf Course has a new cart path, a freshly demonstrated greens mower and an irrigation control panel expected to be installed within weeks, city parks staff said at a Sandusky Boards & Commissions meeting.

The upgrades are aimed at improving playability and maintenance. “The course looks really good. Grounds crew have it has the course in really good shape, and it's playing really well,” Parks staff member Ryan said, adding that the contractor will return to apply one more coating of sealer to the path because some of the asphalt grindings remain loose.

Staff said the cart path gives course managers the option to direct carts onto the path during wet periods to protect fairways and turf. Century Equipment provided on-site instruction to grounds crew on a new greens mower, which staff said should further improve green conditions.

The meeting also covered summer programming at the course: Ryan said a three-week golf camp will run Monday through Thursday for one hour each morning, and that registration has already drawn sign-ups. He said Mills Creek is the home course for both the St. Mary’s and Sandusky High girls’ and boys’ teams and that matches are already scheduled.

On irrigation, staff said a PLC (programmable logic controller) panel that centralizes irrigation control is scheduled to be installed “in a couple weeks,” which would replace the current practice of crew members manually turning sprinklers on and off. Staff noted the panel should allow sprinkler runs outside open hours and reduce manual staffing constraints.

The meeting also noted that the No. 5 bridge project had been awarded to Fike Contractors and that work should begin soon.

Next steps: staff said they expect the irrigation contractor to schedule the PLC panel installation in the coming weeks and will monitor the sealer application and mower deployment through the summer season.