By Helen Tatchell<\/p>\n
The last two-months of summer have not been kind to the district and the Ballan Bowling Club have been hit hard.
\nWith only 8mm of rain in January, and 7mm in February, their bowling rinks have gone from green to dead. But it wasn\u2019t through a lack of water.
\nMick Conroy is the Secretary of the club and said they were using bore water from the recreation reserve tanks.
\n\u201cJanuary was a very hot month and we found we were getting bare patches in our green, so we upped our water consumption with sprinklers, but the green got worse,\u201d
\nhe said.
\nMr Conroy said in the end it just became unplayable; \u201calright for practice but not for competition.\u201d
\n\u201cWe stopped our home pennant matches and got an independent turf consultancy mob in to do a thorough analysis of our green. They took 30-soil samples of the green and the results came back with high salt content in the green.\u201d
\nThe testing also sampled the water they used from the bore.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve been using, this year, water from the bore rather than the mains, and didn\u2019t know the salt content in the soil rose.
\n\u201cLast year we used mains water constantly and it cost the club $1500, so this year we decided to use the bore constantly,\u201d Mr Conroy said.
\nUnfortunately for the club they thought they would save money, but now, face a repair bill of between $30,000 up to $200,000, depending on the option they take.
\nThey have four options with the latter being a costly synthetic green.
\nThe second option is to take two inches off the top of the green, recondition the green, rotary hoe it and start again with reseeding and re-fertilise, at a cost of $30,000.
\nThe third is \u2013 don\u2019t play next year and redevelop with a different sort of grass at a cost of $40-50,000, including loss of income.
\nMr Conroy said the fourth option is to patch it.
\n\u201cWe can get it back to playable conditions, with patch up remedial works. This would last about 2-3 years, and in that time hopefully get enough money for a synthetic green.\u201d
\nThe club spends annually upward of $15,000 on greens maintenance. A cost the club incurs through membership and sponsorship.
\nThe club has taken swift action and connected a 50,000 litre fresh water tank to the roof of the clubrooms, and plumbed back in to the sprinkler system. The recreation reserve committee of management supplied the tank, with local plumber Travis Toohey donating his time to connect it and a local water cartage business also sponsoring to fill the tank.
\nCurrently the club has 47 playing members and 56 social members.
\n\u201cIf we don\u2019t have a bowling green, we don\u2019t have a bowling club,\u201d Mr Conroy said.
\n\u201cWhat we are trying to do is have a bowling green in five-years that will last 20-years.
\n\u201cIt is going to be tough to raise $200,000 but will source as many Grants as we can for the funding,\u201d he said.
\nThe members, through the executive committee will meet to make a decision within the next week.
\nThe Ballan Bowling Club is located in Cowie street and is a user group at the Ballan Recreation Reserve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Helen Tatchell The last two-months of summer have not been kind to the district and the Ballan Bowling Club have been hit hard. With only 8mm of rain in January, and 7mm in February, their bowling rinks have gone from green to dead. But it wasn\u2019t through a lack of water. Mick Conroy is […]<\/p>\n