Safety could be the deciding factor for Disk Golf in Corinth

At the recent Corinth Trails Committee meeting some information on safety was presented by a resident attending the meeting. Basically, the PDGA guidelines on Disc Golf Course Design discourage building fairways that cross heavily trafficked trails, paths or sidewalks or cross those the same passages blind.

I'll get some of the links up here soon.

At this point, as far as I am concerned, safety is going to be the main issue going forward. We already have a problem in terms of how the project launched without proper input from the Parks and Rec Commission or the Council. As we go through the belated process of public discussion, we will have to sort out the costs and safety issues.

As the course is laid out now, it violates the PDGA principles in that it crosses a well trafficked multiuse trail in several places. I think this has to be addressed to have any chance of going forward. Issues of drainage and erosion control also have to be addressed. I think those are easier to handle, but could be expensive. I can't support adding any significant expense to the city budget to put the course in. We could be forced to spend to correct the problems presented by the de facto course - my gut feel is that will cost less than the design and construction work necessary to bring the course in.

I look forward to seeing the design changes that the Disc Golf volunteers would propose to solve the safety issues.

There is a Parks and Recreation meeting Tuesday February 16th at Corinth City Hall. The disc golf course should be on the agenda.

Disc Golf in Corinth

We've definitely had some interesting issues come up in Corinth lately. This one has created a real dilemma for sure. What happens when you have a good idea, go to the "right" people to help get the idea implemented, and then start putting your idea into action, then find out the "right" people took some wrong steps?

Well, in the case of the Disc Golf Course some volunteers set out to create in Corinth, you get angry residents and a city manager and city council with a fair case of heartburn. So how did we get here? I suppose a short description of when and how things happened will help. You can read a variety of news articles on the subject. All of them have some of the facts. From my reading, none of them have all of the facts - I don't think even I have all of the facts - and that is going to be an important point later...

This begins in late in 2008 when a resident of Corinth approached the Community Services/Parks and Recreation department of Corinth with an idea to build a Disc Golf Course. The volunteer planned on providing all labor and materials to build the course. The city staff involved thought this was a good idea: a new recreation opportunity at little or no cost to the city on property the Parks and Recreation already controlled. So, the volunteer got the go ahead from the Parks staff to start building the course at Corinth Community Park - which he did.

The course was "opened" during mid to late 2009 and started to get some players out on it. Sounds good, right? Unfortunately, things were not so good. I actually do not know when the first complaint was registered. I do know that as a member of the city council I got my first indication that there was even a Disc Golf Course in Corinth in November of 2009, when I got an email asking who was in charge of it. So I asked some questions, and started getting even more emails on the subject.

Then I walked the course, while the baskets were still up. I saw some players getting started on a round on the course. After I walked the course, to say that I had some concerns would be a classic understatement.

My first question was "How is it that this never came before the Council?" And that is the crux of the problem here. An otherwise good idea is now reviled because it was never taken through the appropriate steps: review by the Parks and Recreation Commission followed by approval by the Council.

So now we are trying to go through some semblance of the proper procedure ex post facto. Some people are outraged that the council didn't just kill the project. This is where that statement I made earlier comes in - you know the one about how "I don't think even I have all of the facts". As a council member, I think it is wrong to make decisions without a good faith effort to get all the facts. We are currently doing this and bringing those facts back in front of the Parks commission and the Council.

In fact the next Parks and Recreation Commission session is Tuesday February 16th, 2010, and this Disc Golf Course is going to be on the agenda.