Phil Spencer was in the right place at the right time and saved his volunteer organization about $1,200, as well as many hours of labor. It all began with 19 wooden benches in need of some maintenance.
The benches were on the Highland's Golf Course and Spencer is the president of the Friends of the Highlands. The Friends organization does whatever it can to improve the golf course it loves. Organization members fill in where the paid staff can't -- spreading mulch, planting flowers and painting wooden benches.
The benches needed more than paint this time, Spencer said. The boards were showing years of wear and tear, as well as more than a few holes made by vandals with BB guns.
A friend suggested using a composite board instead of wood. The boards are guaranteed to last 25 years and that, Spencer reported, is longer than most of the volunteers plan to be around. So Spencer and his friend went shopping.
A Lowe's salesperson saw them looking at composite decking and told them it was on sale. Then the department manager came over and heard what the men wanted to do with the decking. Highlands, the manager told the two men, is his favorite golf course, so he knocked a little more off the price.
The boards were cut and bolted onto frames that had already been freshly painted. The refurbished benches will never need paint, a chore that the Friends would typically take on every few years. With a quick power washing every now and then, the benches will look like new, Spencer said.
The wooden boards that were taken off the benches won't go to waste either. Superintendent Greg Jones used some of them to create paneling for the back wall of his office. Another group of boards are being painted red, white and blue and will be assembled to resemble a flag and displayed next to the scoreboard that the Friends donated two years ago.
The Friends group has an active board of directors that numbers about 18 people and a mailing list that includes close to 60 couples. All the money for its projects is raised during the annual Fourth of July Golf Tournament, which is almost always full, with 144 golfers each year.
Sports on 02/20/2019