City Borrows $182,500 For Four Winds Repairs

The Kimball City/County Park and Recreation Executive Board voted unanimously to borrow $182,500 at 5.35% interest to drill a well and repair Four Winds Golf Course’s largest pump.

Sargent Irrigation from Broken Bow will be doing the installation and repairs. The well will be operational by April 1, 2024. Approval for the well was given at a meeting on Tuesday, December 19.

Four Winds Superintendent Jeremy Williams explained to the Observer the recent trouble with the large 100 hp well. For the past couple of years, the heads have plugged up with gravel, but this year matters continued to get worse.

Williams explained, “The gravel was large enough to clog up many sprinkler heads and quick-couplers through the course and ball field complex causing an absolute nightmare as far as trying to get things watered.

“Most of our sprinkler heads are an older style that have a screen in the bottom of the head that can only be accessed by digging up the sprinkler, removing it from the pipe, flushing the rocks out, then putting everything back together. We have gradually been upgrading to the newer style heads where the screen can be accessed from above without digging the head up. As of right now only about 10% of our (over 1000) sprinklers are the newer style.”

“We started the season trying to dig up and flush many heads, but as the well continued to pump rocks it became very disheartening as a sprinkler would be dug up and flushed only to plug up again hours or sometimes a few days later.”

The wet spring helped keep the course in prime condition, but when the hot weather hit hoses had to be drug around the facility to water greens and other vital areas.

Williams said the golf course has two irrigation wells, and the large 100 hp well is the one being replaced; the new one will be installed close to the old well. The old well is just over 230 feet deep. The casing of that well had at least one large hole and maybe some smaller ones that pulled gravel into the system. In turn, the gravel plugs up the sprinkler heads.

The estimate includes equipping both wells with Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) producing less wear and tear on the pump and casing and more efficient with water and electricity.

In addition, a John Deere Field/Bunker rake was also purchased for the golf course and ball fields.

Another item on the board’s agenda was an update on the proposed land swap involving park and recreation land. An appraisal of the 44.05 acres at the recreation center has been completed. The appraisal for the land came in at $227,300, which does not include the ballfields.

Everything must be approved through the Nebraska Game and Parks. Then it is forwarded to the federal government, with the next step being finding a suitable property to swap with comparable values.

The deadline for the next step is one year from the appraisal, which was August 28, 2024.

It was also determined that the board needed additional money for appraisal. The first appraisal was $10,000, with a review costing $1,600. Although no vote was held, it was discussed that between $7,000 and $8,000 more will be needed to continue with the future appraisals for the land swap.