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Southborough golf committee rushes to shore up irrigation funding as costs top $1 million
Summary
At a committee meeting, members said a long-delayed irrigation overhaul has swelled toward roughly $1 million. With Community Preservation Committee funding potentially expiring this year, the committee asked town staff to clarify spending rules and pledged follow-up with DPW and CPC representatives.
The Town of Southborough Golf Course Committee spent most of its meeting focused on a stalled irrigation overhaul whose cost has increased sharply over several years.
"This has been going on at least four years, maybe five years now," a committee member said, adding that estimates had risen from earlier figures in the mid-hundreds of thousands to "now over a million dollars." The committee discussed whether to seek more Community Preservation Committee (CPC) funding, split the work into phases, or find other financing.
Members said the CPC application process and timing are critical: "I think if we don't do it, we'll lose the money by this year, 2026," a committee member warned in the meeting. Committee members noted a CPC informational session on June 11 and that an application to CPC is due by June 30.
Committee discussion covered technical, procurement and financing issues. On the technical side, one participant said there is not enough pressure in the town mains to run the sprinkler heads as planned, and a pump station could be required; the pump station cost was cited in the meeting as roughly $75,000–$100,000. On procurement, members debated whether to bid the entire project as one package (the approach DPW leadership has favored) or to phase work and reduce the immediate bid amount by omitting components such as some heads or fairway irrigation.
On financing, a committee member summarized staff feedback: town finance officials said the golf revolving fund cannot be used to issue town debt. The same speaker said the revolving fund balance was "180 some odd thousand dollars," and estimated seasonal revenue might add roughly $125,000–$130,000, a shortfall relative to the project's price tag.
The committee agreed on follow-up steps rather than a formal motion to commit funds. Tony Shoner, newly elected chair, and other members said they would contact DPW and town finance staff for clarity. One next step recorded in the meeting was for a member to check with DPW's Bill Kundiff about what the DPW would present at the CPC meeting; another member offered to ask the controller whether CPC money must be spent, contracted, or merely allocated to preserve eligibility.
The committee did not adopt a funding plan at the meeting. Members said they would try to coordinate attendance for the CPC presentation and prepare an application update by the June 30 deadline.
