BY ED FELIEN
There was supposed to be an important community meeting on Sept. 15 at the Nokomis Community Center to discuss future options for the Hiawatha Golf Course. For golfers, it didn’t look good. The Park Board had done nothing to repair the back nine at Hiawatha since the 2014 spring flooding. That deliberate neglect and the trial balloon that some elected officials had sent up suggesting it might be wise to turn Hiawatha into a nine hole course led many neighbors and veteran golfers to believe the Park Board wanted to close the back nine permanently, and they were trying to get everyone used to the idea.
Then, at 4 p.m. on the day of the meeting, Park Board staff sent out this memo:
On Friday, Sept. 11, 2015, staff of the Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board (MPRB) and the City of Minneapolis Department of Public Works reviewed new, preliminary information regarding groundwater at Hiawatha Golf Course. This initial data, collected as part of a report expected to be presented to the Park Board and City in November, suggests that the groundwater volume is greater than previously understood and may pose limitations for the concepts prepared for review at the Lake Hiawatha Golf Course improvement public meeting scheduled for 6 p.m. today, Tuesday, Sept. 15, at the Lake Nokomis Community Center.
The preliminary data indicates that substantial amounts of groundwater are being pumped from areas of the golf course each year to maintain the course in a playable condition. The exact amount has yet to be determined; however, initial calculations estimate up to 273 million gallons per year. The preliminary information received indicates that without the pumps, groundwater may overwhelm the course. As this preliminary data is new, its implications and impacts have yet to be understood. Once the report is presented to the Park Board in November, it will take MPRB staff several months to fully review the report and reach conclusions related to the reconfiguration of the golf course.
While the MPRB regrets that this information is coming so late in the process, it is a result of the due diligence being pursued by the MPRB and its partners in the Hiawatha Golf Course study. Only after the report is fully assessed can a series of recommendations be reviewed with the community and golf stakeholders. Rather than cancel tonight’s meeting, the MPRB chose to share this new information with attendees and answer questions as staff is able.
What?
The meeting was a bust, of course. There was little to discuss. Veteran golfers suspect this latest “discovery” will be one more reason the Park Board will give to close the back nine.
[Full disclosure: I love the back nine at Hiawatha. I grew up at 4213 29th Ave. I used to go down to the golf course after I finished delivering my morning Tribune route and look for golf balls when I was 13. I caddied the course and learned to play there. I was junior assistant cart boy for 10 years. Herb was in charge of bringing the electric golf carts up from the cart shed next to the 14th hole. Sheldy Kleve, one of my best friends from grade school, was his assistant, and I helped Sheldy. We played the back nine every day for 20 years. Sheldy died and I played the back nine with Skip Nelson, another grade school buddie, for another 10 years until he died a couple of years ago. The front nine is fun, but it’s not as pretty or as challenging as the back nine where you have to hit over the creek at least three times.]
There are two problems with Lake Hiawatha: the pollution and the increased seasonal flooding. Water quality at Hiawatha has so severely deteriorated that the Park Board wants to close the swimming beach. Council Member Andrew Johnson has described the problem:“Just to be clear regarding the environmental issues at play here: There is a stormwater pipe entering the northside of Lake Hiawatha, which is connected to dozens of miles of impervious road surface (and subsequently all the abutting properties). So if someone throws a cigarette butt out their car window within this stormwater runoff area and it is not picked up, it’s going into Lake Hiawatha: lawn chemical runoff, tons of litter and pollutants such as errant oil and coolant [in the stormwater runoff area go into the lake as well]. So what I want to see happen and am advocating for is using natural filtration and ponds, as well as trash grid chambers, integrated into the golf course for the stormwater to flow through before entering the lake. The natural filtration would be similar in function to the new natural pool that opened this year in North Minneapolis, which uses plants to remove impurities and help catch debris. Additionally, integrating better stormwater drainage and storage capacity into the golf course helps reduce the flood risk for nearby residents (most of whom are not insured against flooding, which can be financially devastating if/when it happens).”
The pollution is not caused by the golf course. In fact, the existing drainage ponds on the course actually filter the water and improve the quality, and there are virtually no toxic chemicals used in maintaining the course. Flooding is the principal concern. The Park Board got federal disaster relief money to repair the damages done by the 2014 flood, but so far they seem to have done little more than throw up their hands and say there’s no way they can prevent another major flood. It’s unfortunate that they don’t seem to know their history. In 1929 when Theodore Wirth bought and built the park at Lake Hiawatha and built the golf course it was called Mud Lake and then Rice Lake. It was not much of a lake, more of a swamp. It was dredged (as was Powderhorn in 1905) and a lake was created. Today, Minnehaha Creek continues to bring silt into Hiawatha and in the past 20 years has created a delta near the entrance to Hiawatha. The lake seems to be trying to once again become a swamp. The “official” depth of 33 feet for Hiawatha is probably from 80 years ago. Locals who have gone out in the winter and drilled an auger in various places on the lake have only hit depths of 8 and 12 feet.
Hopefully, before the Park Board commits to a final course of action, it will get current and correct information about the depth of the lake and the cost of dredging to a suitable depth to insure water quality and prevent flooding.
