Maintenance Facility Improvements

It has been a long six months since my last posting and there is no better time to catch up when the outside temperature is 3 degrees.

For more than 2 1/2 years we have been working towards major Maintenance Facility improvements and today we have finally received our building permit. The process included numerous meetings with County Officials, Fire Marshals, Architects, Contractors, Neighbors  and more than twenty building design iterations before coming up with one that will work for everybody.

Every step of the way we seemed to run into a new challenge in the process, many were anticipated and several were not.  After this long process I am looking forward to finally after 18 years of working out of a dirt/mud parking lot having a quality facility to protect the substantial investment of our equipment fleet.

Currently we have only 6000 sqft of enclosed building space, this also includes office and equipment repair areas that cuts into the overall square footage.  The new building will be and additional 8000 sqft that will allow us to get our entire fleet inside and out of the elements. With more than $1.5 Million dollars invested in our equipment fleet this new building will go along way to maximize the life of our equipment.

Throughout the construction process I will once again post regularly with progress, here's to normal weather conditions over the next several months.

Below are some current pictures that show our yard area that most of the equipment sits outside and the renderings of what will be.

Keeping It Sharp

We have two full time Equipment Manger’s on staff and the majority of their time is spent making sure that everything is cutting perfectly at all times. This is a tremendous undertaking especially after aerification, when abrasive materials such as compost and sand are generously applied to the turf areas.
Greensmower On The Grinder


Changing Bedknives On A Greensmower

Immediately following heavy applications of sand the mowers have to be frequently ground and new bedknives installed in order for them to remain cutting. Even when this is done it remains a challenge maintaining a sharp reel with any traces of sand on the grass surface. The Equipment Manager has to do a lot of filing of the bedknives leading edge in order to have any kind of quality cut taking place.

During the summer when we’re at full staff on any given day there can be as many as 23 mowers in operation with a total of 41 cutting reels. Each of these mowers has to be checked for cut and adjusted before it can be ready to go for the next days mowing.