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Managing editor

The sale of bonds to pay a portion of the cost of the new Bunker Hills Golf Course Clubhouse project has been approved by the Coon Rapids City Council.

The council has sold $4,225,000 in general obligation revenue bonds to low bidder Baird, a Milwaukee, Wis., based company at a true interest rate of 5.14 percent.

“That’s a really good interest rate,” said Finance Director Sharon Legg.

That was echoed by Jonathan North, a representative of the city’s financial consultant, Ehlers & Associates, which handled the bond issue.

The savings to the city and taxpayers between the low and high bid was $134,537 and the interest rate was under the projected rate of 5.86 percent, according to North.

The bonds, which will be paid back over 25 years from golf revenues not city property taxes, will finance the non-leased portion of the new clubhouse, according to Finance Director Sharon Legg.

But if golf revenues are insufficient to pay the bonds, then the city will need to levy for any shortfall, Legg said.

The balance of the $9,279,412 estimated project cost, $5.3 million, will come from existing dollars in the city’s facilities construction fund.

“If there are sufficient revenues in the future, a portion of the transfer from the facilities construction fund will be repaid,” Legg said.

Meantime, a city panel has interviewed the seven companies that responded to the request for proposal that the city sent out to prospective firms to provide food and beverage services at the new clubhouse.

The panel, which comprised Councilmembers Denise Klint and Joe Sidoti, Golf Director Dick Tollette, Golf Professional Tim Anderson, City Clerk Joni Anderson, City Attorney Stoney Hiljus and City Manager Matt Fulton conducted the interviews May 16 and 17.

According to Fulton, three finalists were chosen by the panel from the seven companies interviewed - Town and Country Catering, Morrissey Hospitality Company and Lancer Hospitality.

The panel, with the assistance of consultant Roy Dodds of Royalynn Consulting, will negotiate with the three finalists to determine which will provide the best food and beverage service at the best price for the city, Fulton said.

Depending on the negotiations, either all three finalists or two of the three, will go before the full council for interviews at a work session, he said.

The hope is that the council will make its choice of operator in July so that the successful vendor can work with the city on the remaining planning elements involved with the clubhouse project.

Besides the three finalists, other responders to the request for proposal interviewed were Bayview Catering, Suburban Cuisine and Theater Co. (the current Seasons operators), MESB Catering and Jax Downtown Cafe, Fulton said.

“All the firms were excellent,” he said.

“All the finalists have experience in varying degrees of the type of catering business that we are looking for.”

In late April 20, the council approved plans and specifications and ordered advertisement for bids for the project.

According to Public Services Director Steve Gatlin, construction manager Amcon Construction has prepared bid packages for the various components and is pre-qualifying the specialized contractors.

In all, there will be 34 separate, stand-alone contracts, Gatlin said.

Plans are to have three bid packages, with the first set of bids going to the council for contract awards at its June 1 meeting, Gatlin said.

“Items awarded at that meeting will be those that can be started immediately and those items that require long lead time for delivery,” Gatlin said.

For example, these would likely include structural steel, heating and air conditioning equipment, he said.

The second set of contracts are scheduled for action on the council’s June 15 agenda, but those components of the bid package affecting the food and beverage operation will be delayed until later in the summer so that the company selected by the council can be involved in the contract awards, according to Gatlin.

Construction on the project is expected to begin in the latter part of June, Gatlin said.

Bid components will include demolition of the existing clubhouse and related site improvements such as site utilities, asphalt paving and landscaping/irrigation/retaining walls.

Under Amcon’s timetable, completion of the project is anticipated by Wednesday, June 1, 2011.

The existing clubhouse will be demolished once the new building is constructed. That work will start March 16, 2011, the day after the existing lease with The Seasons, which has run the restaurant-banquet business at the golf course since the building opened in the 1970s, expires.

The new 28,800 square-foot clubhouse will be located to the west of the present building. The existing parking lots will remain and 76 parking spaces will added in the area now occupied by the clubhouse.

The new clubhouse will have a large banquet area, a family restaurant, a golfers grill, a pro shop and a golf simulation area as well as three outdoor seating areas, kitchen and office space.

In addition, the Minnesota Pro Golfers Association Hall of Fame will have a display area in the front of the new building. There is a Hall of Fame area in the existing clubhouse, but space will be doubled in the new facility.

There will be three entrances, one for the banquet area, one for the restaurants and the other for the pro shop. Each section of the building will have an outdoor seating area.

The building exterior will be a mix of wood and stone with an asphalt shingle roof.

The large banquet room, totaling more than 5,000 square feet, will have seating for 400 people without the dance floor or 350 people with a dance floor.

As designed, the banquet room can be subdivided into three rooms with provision made for a stage and dressing rooms for the theater productions that currently take place at The Seasons.

The design plan shows a 150-seat, 3,000 square-foot bar and grill, which will be much larger than the present 1,742 square-foot bar and grill. A kids’ game room is also part of the plan.

The existing cart storage building remains, but it will become part of new clubhouse at the rear of the pro shop with a roof deck on top of it accessible from the pro shop’s simulator lounge.

Work on the cart storage area improvements will be completed late this year so that it is ready for the start of the 2011 golf season.

Also scheduled for completion before the end of the year is construction of a halfway house on the golf course. It will be a permanent building that will replace the existing starter building and include food and beverage service and restrooms.

Peter Bodley is at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it