As of May 15, 2012 the 1% Money Looks Like This:

Library         1.5Arrowhead   4.0Golf course   3.1Birch grove    1.15
Community Center    9.5
        .for a total of $19.25 M of  $20M Leaving $975,000
I have to say I can't wait till all that money is gone so the infighting can stop and I hope the next time the idea of  taxing ourselves comes up we'll know better.
Over the last month, the community center has considerably dropped  in scale by using  as much of the high school as possible and increased it's budget by $500,000Birch Grove is over budget and received an additional  $270,000Broadband is stalled in red tape.and the golf course is moving forward with their 1st 9 hole rehab for $3.1M..
Tuesdays commissioners meeting also had a golf course presentation in Arrowhead's board room in Lutsen followed by a guided tour of the course.

I came away from this tour with a little different out look. The power point  presentation was well done as was an overview of the project with John Waite's (Sirus golf course adviser) bullshit kept to a minimum.Then Jeff Brauer the course architect took over explaining his vision and design.  I love this man's commitment and enthusiasm  for his work.  I do believe him to be sincere.

Then came the guided tour of the course. I was the only one of all the people there that had never set foot on this course. Once outside the club house we were invited to a line of golf carts were everyone was asked to pair up with a driver. Bob Fenwick announced he had a seat open and I jumped in with him.For those who know me you will find this very funny, after all it's not like Bob and I are on each other's Christmas card list.It was nice to see the project this way because up till then it's all been drawings and the land contures are hard to visualize. We covered the 1st 9 holes that will receive the make over.
Then a quick view of a few holes that will be signature holes planed for rehab in Phase 2 and we also looked over the driving range that the water pipeline might run through.


The outing ended back at the club house were we looked over samples of sand ranging from what's in the traps right now to a pure white sand used in other resort type courses.


So here's what I came away with: They are going to rebuild the course from the infrastructure up, starting with the entire  irrigation system, sand bedding the tee boxes, adding some length to the 18 holes, contouring and widening the fairways, lining the sand traps and filling them with a quality sand, rebuilding the driving range, and sowing better grass everywhere.

Not much was mentioned about the club house improvements but I do know that's part of the plans. I do believe we will end up with a very nice looking golf course,  but I  do think there's quite a bit of
"if we build it they will come" attitude.


Thinking that I'm not sure will pan out as predicted, but only time will tell.  I think right now the total project for the best 18 holes is just short of 6 million dollars and when asked were the other money would come from it get a little grey.
All in all it was a nice chance to look over the project and I appreciated the look.

May 5th and 6th was the DFL District 8 Precinct Convention. I was a delegate and Pat was an alternate.
Cook County sends 6 delegates to this convention and each delegate only has 1/2 of a vote, for a total of 3 full votes.
At this convention there was a total of 176 votes, so when one of our delegates wanted to be elected as a delegate to the DFL convention in Charlotte NC, I was concerned that our three votes couldn't carry it off.
Well  after our combined efforts from table campaigning and a great speech from out delegate, we are sending Denny Fitzpatrick to the national convention. Pretty cool.