By Ken Valenti

WESTPORT–With 40,000 golfers playing at the Longshore Golf Course each season, the tee boxes – the flat areas at the start of each hole – can take a beating. This November, the Westport Parks and Recreation plans to restore seven deteriorated tee boxes. 

“The seven that we’re doing are in really bad shape,” Director of Parks and Recreation Erik Barbieri told the RTM on Tuesday, presenting the $250,000 project. “These are complete tee rebuilds in many cases.”

Vote passes easily

The RTM approved the project by a vote of 20-4 with four other members abstaining. The Board of Selectwomen is scheduled to vote Wednesday on awarding the job to Prestige Landscaping, Inc.

Other tee boxes need attention as well, but the department focused on the seven worst ones, Barbieri said. Golf Course Superintendent Sean Charles may be able to handle work on some others in house, he said.

The restoration needed varies by hole, and includes removal or pruning of some trees planted when the course was created in the mid-1920s. At hole 13, one of those trees has grown to encroach on the tee box, its root pushing through the grass. 

“It’s unacceptable to have a root sticking out of a tee box,” Barbieri said. 

New grass

Charles said crews would replace the annual rye grass and annual blue grass with creeping bent grass, which is hardier and requires less water, fertilizer, pesticides and fungicides.

The project came to the full RTM meeting after receiving approvals from two committees – Parks and Recreation and Finance – at a previous meeting, said RTM member Chris Tait, chair of the Parks and Recreation committee. He said both panels had approved the plan 7-0.

“We’re investing in the golf course so it can keep being a revenue producer for us down the road,” he said.

Money maker

Each year, the golf course at 260 South Compo Road brings the town about $1.6 million in revenue, and nets about $200,000 after expenses, Barbieri said.

District 2 RTM member Louis Mall, one of four who voted against the plan, said he opposed it because he felt replacing Longshore’s aging parks maintenance shed should be resolved first. 

“I want to get that maintenance facility done and move on from there and get the rest of Longshore done before we start in on the details of the golf course,” he said.

Pesticide use

Wendy Batteau, one member who abstained, said she was worried about plans to use pesticides. She said the community had been assured in the past that pesticides would be used on the golf course only in emergencies.

Charles said the effective use of pesticides is necessary to protect the grass.

“We’re not at a point yet in agronomy where we can just rely on luck or faith to protect what is such an important asset to the community of Westport,” he said.