Golf course prepares for cleanup
The Environmental Protection Agency didn’t achieve its Monday target date to begin asbestos removal at the Cabinet View Golf Course but has begun preparations for the six-week cleanup.
The process couldn’t be set in motion until the assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response in Washington, D.C. approved the action memo. The administrator didn’t sign it until late Thursday night, Libby team leader Victor Ketellapper said.
It will take another week or two before the EPA can begin actual removal, Cabinet View board member Dann Rohrer said, because preliminary work – such as mobilizing equipment and awarding the job to a contractor – couldn’t begin until this week.
“That’s why we needed this done two weeks ago,” Rohrer said. “We’re delinquent in our timing as far as I’m concerned. It will put us back unless they can get right with it.”
Rohrer estimates that the golf course has been discussing the cleanup with the EPA for over six years now, though specifics weren’t thrown out until about three years ago. He didn’t get involved in the project until it appeared that red tape was going to push the project further into fall. He knew that dawdling would risk the project not being finished before winter.
“Things got a little sticky but we worked it out,” Rohrer said. “We made some calls and some things came around.”
The course’s new nine holes, which have only been in use for 2-1/2 years, will still be in commission with a temporary clubhouse, while the original nine-hole course and clubhouse will be closed off until spring, according to Rohrer.
“Our goal is next year to play some golf on the old nine again,” Rohrer said. “If we start it (the cleanup) on time, with all the projections we should have it done in the fall. That’s why it’s imperative that they (the EPA) get their part done.”
The EPA will remove asbestos-laced vermiculite from the original golf course’s tees, greens and sand traps, and clean the cart sheds, greenskeeper’s shop and its surrounding structures. The EPA also identified a few isolated spots on the fairway to be cleaned, Rohrer said. The small areas were inadvertently contaminated by spilled vermiculite or leaking sprinklers.
The golf course will be in charge of rebuilding once the asbestos is removed. EPA will use a planned travel route so that the builder can use the same path to restore the area.
“They’ve done a good job of planning out the strategy to do the least damage,” Rohrer said. “Instead of driving all over the golf course, it’s good to sit down and plan.”
The cleanup is broken down into quadrants so that once the EPA finishes one section, the golf course’s contractor can move in and rebuild while the EPA is working on another section.
The golf course is “in ready mode,” Rohrer said, and as soon as the EPA is prepared to begin, the clubhouse and old nine will be closed down.
The timing of the cleanup was well thought out, Rohrer said. Most of the major tournaments are over, though the Apple Open in September will have to be played on the new nine.
The temporary clubhouse has already been ordered and will be located across the road from the driving ranges on the north side of current hole 17. A gravel parking lot will probably be laid out this week, Rohrer said.
The temporary clubhouse will have a smaller menu because space will not allow a full kitchen.
Members will not have access to the clubhouse once cleanup commences, so they may want to empty their lockers and take their golf carts home, Rohrer said. Patrons may transport their golf carts back and forth or take advantage of free unlimited access to the golf course’s carts.
Some of the men who built the original nine-hole golf course by hand in the mid-1950s still live in Libby today. Golf course officials understand the sacredness of the course to some who have played on it since it opened in 1959.
“It’s scary to take apart what people built 50 years ago …,” Rohrer said. “We want to put it back respectfully.”
Rohrer emphasizes that the changes will be minimal and only to better playability of the course.
“Things will be different, but for the positive,” he said. “We want to improve it, keeping in mind that we want to keep it Cabinet View Golf Course.”
The greens will be bigger to coincide with modern golf courses, and they will be built with drainage underneath, Rohrer said, allowing a less severe slope to replace the current turtleback-shaped greens. A few areas have been identified as unsafe, so some tee boxes may be moved slightly if they are too close to a landing zone.