Grand board holds off on palm tree project

The Sun City Grand board of directors wants more information before proceeding with a $350,000 tree replacement project at the Cimarron Golf Course.

Board President John Such said the project, which would replace around 50 date palm trees that have died on the golf course, has "too many questions and not enough answers."

The board denied the motion at a regular meeting last Thursday.

"It's about $351,000, and we denied the motion not because we're against it, but because we have too many unknowns yet," he said.

Such said a chief concern for the board is the heavy equipment needed to bring in and plant the date palms.

"They're going to have to bring in equipment that weighs something like 80,000 pounds and we don't know if there's going to be damage to the golf course," he said. "If there is damage, we don't know how much it will cost to repair the damage (so) the board is going to try to take some time to figure it out."

The board will hold a workshop meeting this month in which it visits the golf course at the palm tree replacement sites, to determine the best course of action.

Further, Such said the board will likely push the expenditure into the next fiscal budget rather than be forced to take $250,000 from reserve funds to pay the difference. The current budget has $100,000 set aside for the date palm replacements.

"We've recommended it be pushed back to the 2010 budget. We've had a number of capital projects approved in concept in the 2009 budget and have not approved anything yet. We're trying to be fiscally responsible," he said.