Medical Insurance Benefits...Worth Checking 1/21/11

As we start the year, It is worth knowing your medical insurance benefits.

I have been preparing letters for several members showing the annual cost of membership dues and that those gain them access to a fitness facility.  Many of your health insurance policies will cover a portion of the dues to a health club because they are all encouraging healthier lifestyles to reduce high medical costs later.  There are a wide variety of amounts I have heard from the various Members requesting the letter...in all cases it was enough to be worth a 5 or 10 minute call. 

Call your insurance company and enquire if your coverage includes reimbursement for a health club or gym.  If so, ask how much and what documentation is needed.  Then, contact the accounting department or myself and we will get you the appropriate information to send in.

Lastly, it is a new year!  We have a great 36,000 sq. ft Sports Club only 40 steps from the main Clubhouse.  They have anything you are looking for including complementary classes, specialty classes, personal trainers, free weights, weight machines, cardio equipment and sport courts.  We do indoor and outdoor training not to mention the tennis courts and cardio tennis.  I encourage you to use it...then when you are all done, use our spa services to reward yourself with a haircut, style, massage, manicure, pedicure or other skin therapy services.  A new year and a new you!

See you at the Club...Sports Club...maybe both!

Kindest regards 

Fish Population 1/19/11

As you may have noticed as you play golf, we have a portion of the fish population expiring currently.  This unfortunately is an annual event that we experience about this time every year.  This is a fairly specific problem localized to the Tilapia species.  When atmospheric conditions become correct each year it causes the lakes to “turn over.”  When that occurs it fluctuates the environment in the water enough that it causes the weaker fish to expire.  The science surrounding this annual occurrence as I understand it is as follows.  Each year when atmospheric conditions are correct it causes the water on the surface to be "much warmer" than the water below causing layering or "stratification."  This causes 2 distinct things: more oxygen in the warmer surface water than the cooler water below (this is a strange event in itself as typically cooler water holds more oxygen) and it insulates the cooler water below.  The reduction in dissolved oxygen below causes a "stress" situation.  Then when conditions are correct and the top warm water is mixed with all water during "turn over" lowers the overall temperature of the lake.  Tilapia are very sensitive to temperature and this drastic temperature change will cause death in weaker "stressed" fish.  In extreme cases if the "turn over" lowers the temperature near 60 degrees even healthier fish can be in jeopardy.

Each year we gather these fish daily and place them in containers.  At the end of this event each year Arizona Fish and Wildlife collects them from all area properties for disposal.

This event has nothing to do with any practices we utilize to maintain the property.  While not a specialist, it has more to do with size of the body of water, water temperature, atmospheric conditions and the specific ecological environment in the particular body of water.

Kindest regards

Front Entry Information 1/19/11

You will notice we are having extensive tree work done at the entrance to the club in the front esplanade.  This work will take place today through Friday.

The esplanade located at the front drive is actually the property of the City of Glendale.  It is an easement area that some time ago we requested the right to maintain this area so we could protect the appearance of the entry drive.  This has been a good and long-standing relationship with the City that continues today.

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by the cities street light management officer.  They make regular inspections of over 19,000 street lights and as a oversight on our and their part, they did not realize the entry esplanade was their property with an easement granted to us.  That said they have not inspected our street lights for compliance for quite some time.  With that knowledge, our entry lamps fall under the jurisdiction of city code which we must comply with.  That code says in summary that from the top lamp on the light pole there must be an unfettered line-of-site at a 30 foot ground level distance from the base of the pole.  I met with the officers last week to find out what work they felt needed to be done for us to comply.  From that meeting it is necessary for us to remove 6 trees from the entry esplanade as well as trim a few additional trees to comply with the code.

In reviewing the work, we believe this will have a positive effect on the appearance of the entry as we will be relocating our entry sign as well as re-working grass and ornamental flower areas.  This will also allow us to do some grading work to level those areas.

I hope this keeps you informed of happenings as they occur.

Kindest regards

Course Vandalism 1/18/11

We experienced an act of vandalism on the course overnight Sunday, January 16, 2011.  The damage occurred to the green surfaces on holes 4, 8, 10, 11 & 16.

We have taken sample plugs of the affected areas and are having soil analysis done to determine the chemical profile of the substance used.  This will help us determine the course of action to correct the damage.  The odor profile we can detect leads us to believe the common chemical Round Up was used.  We are basing our actions on that assumption until the lab results are back in a few days.

Monday morning when the vandalism was noticed, our first course of action was to treat the area with activated charcoal.  This treatment is placed in direct contact of the affected area and begins to neutralize the chemical on the surface and as it penetrates the soil, treats the sub-surface area as well.  After 24 hours, the activated charcoal is deep watered to flush it through the soil and stripping the root mass of all chemicals…both detrimental and beneficial nutrients.  These steps have been completed.

Moving forward we will “spike” the affected area, introduce seed, top dress with sand and then have an aggressive supplement and fertilizer schedule for these areas.  Once we complete this process we will monitor progress daily and weekly to determine if plugging some areas would aide in the healing process.  We are confident this will be the best course of action delivering the best outcome.  Do to the sensitive sub-surface and the delicate grading of the greens, it is very desirable not to strip and sod these sections.

To our Members who live in the neighborhood and on the course.  If you saw anything strange that night and can identify location or person, we would truly love to hear that information.

Kindest regards

Continuing Migratory Bird Issue 1/5/2011

Continuing Migratory Bird Issue

I continue to speak to many members individually regarding our migratory bird (geese, ducks and coots) population.  I am writing this in my continuing effort to keep everyone informed on our activities to control this problem/population.

We all know the destructive nature of this wildlife including extensive turf loss from feeding and waste deposits as well as just the overall sloppy conditions it creates.  I will take this opportunity to give you a broad view of our approach and list our specific efforts below.  Arrowhead Country Club works very closely with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Arizona Fish and Wildlife to employ every legal means at our disposal to aide in the management of these migratory bird species.  We also utilize the above organizations and the specific items mentioned below to control the species that end up being resident population.  It is important to note that both on the Federal and State level they realize that this migratory bird population is a problem.  That realization is what leads to extended hunting seasons and the programs mentioned below to control the population.

Due to the seasonality of this issue, I will begin this detailed account beginning with August just prior to the “season.”

How we utilize the outside organizations:

·  The USDA is on property beginning late August each year.  At this time, we begin monitoring activity to determine if a pre-season baiting can be employed.  This all comes down to timing.  The USDA needs a large enough population of birds on-site to feed for 14 days to establish a feeding habit that the maximum number of birds will take advantage of.  At that time, they switch the feed to a heavy sedative called Alpha Chloralose which allows the birds to be harvested and removed.  This process comes down to timing because they have to complete this process 10 days prior to the first state published hunting season.  This process is also employed in February after the last published state hunting season.  It may not be utilized during hunting season as someone could potentially eat a bird exposed to the heavy sedative.

·  Once the USDA is on-site beginning sometime in late August or early September, they hunt the migratory birds on our property on a bi-weekly basis turning to weekly or more frequently as we get deeper into the fall and winter months.  Early on they may harvest 10 or more birds with each visit.  As time goes on, the birds get more nervous and stay aloft longer so those numbers decrease.  The hope in this ongoing effort is that they will ultimately choose to leave and go to a place where they are not nervous.

·  Through Fish and Wildlife we have a Resident Canada Goose Registration which allows us to disrupt birds, nests and habitats on our property.

·  Both organizations provide us counsel on their latest studies in tactics which we may utilize in an effort to control these species.

What we do in-house:

·  We nuisance all species of birds with an air paint ball gun.  This is done at multiple times each day but is most effective during feeding cycles.

·  We disrupt all species daily.  The most effective way is to get them into the air.  Sometimes all you can accomplish is getting them into the water.  The goal is to disrupt their feeding so either is beneficial but getting them to take flight is the desired outcome.

·  Laser pointers or red lens lights are beneficial during the pre-dawn and dusk hours as they view them as potential predators.  The hope is they will become scared and choose to leave the property.

·  Predatory decoy mechanisms are placed in many or our lakes which also are supposed to resemble a predator in the area at those pre-dawn and dusk hours and aide in moving the birds off property.

·  In the last visit with the USDA on Monday, we discussed wire lining lakes to create a “disruptive” area while birds are trying to enter and exit water.  This is more effective on coots than other species and while singularly would not control any issues, it in our USDA representatives words “may be one more thing that might help.”  We will begin this work on some of our smaller water areas next week to see if they have a positive outcome.

·  To help control the waste left behind, we utilize jet blowers several times each week and have increased the frequency of mowing high impact areas to clear the area.

·  After hunting season ends in February, we continue to have the USDA come out to hunt the birds that become “resident.”  They are usually on property after season every week or two until we have the resident population narrowed down and spooked to where our nuisance and disruptive tactics keep them at bay.

·  Those practices carry us over to August when we started at the top of this section.

We can use your help:

·  Please do not feed any birds on Club property.  No migratory bird is a pet.  I ask that those of you who read this update educate other Members you see feeding birds on Club property.

This obviously is an area that we spend significant resources on in both time and money.  When we employ a baiting strategy, each area costs approximately $1000 excluding our USDA representative’s time.  Each visit for baiting or hunting costs approximately $200.  When you add the staff payroll to those figures our annual investment in these control efforts reaches tens of thousands.

This above is a bullet point summary of our efforts in controlling the bird population.  We continue to revise this plan as new techniques are brought to our attention by federal and state organizations.  If you have any specific questions or would like a more detailed explanation of the items below, do not hesitate to contact me at the Club.

Kindest regards,

Steve