Construction could begin in early 2019, with a grand opening several months later sometime around Memorial Day or the Fourth of July.
Evesham Township continues to move forward with plans to construct a miniature golf course at the municipal-owned-and-managed Indian Spring Country Club and golf course.
Plans would put the course adjacent to the Indian Spring driving range, to the side of the Gibson House Community Center along East Main Street /Tuckerton Road.
Bob Hennefer, director of golf, recreation and open space for the township, gave an update on the project a recent Evesham Township Council meeting.
Although the project is still in early planning stages, Hennefer said officials would like to see construction begin in early 2019, with a grand opening for the site several months later, sometime around Memorial Day or the Fourth of July depending on the weather.
“We don’t want to open this thing up in the winter time,” Hennefer said. “We want to open it up with a bang Memorial Day or July Fourth or somewhere within that time frame.”
According to current estimates, Hennefer said the project would cost around $500,000 to $600,000 to construct, but the township would see a return on that investment within one to two years.
With the potential course adjacent to the Indian Spring driving range and pro shop, Hennefer said plans are to have current pro shop employees serve the customers for each of the two activities.
“Employees would be able to do both functions, with adding an employee or two here or there based on busy times,” Hennefer said. “The idea is that we’ll modify that building to be able to house both operations. It’ll be one point of contact for everything.”
Those plans reflect previous comments Hennefer made when first announcing the township’s idea for the potential course, at which time he said township would mostly be adding utility costs with the project.
As for the design of the course itself, Hennefer said the township has already been in contact with several companies to gauge exactly what the township could do.
Hennefer said the township would eventually seek a public bid for the course’s design, and once the township has that design, it would bid out again based on the design.
“That will make the bid process a little bit cleaner,” Hennefer said.
Hennefer said the project would also eventually go through the approval process from the local planning board and Burlington County. This is due to the course’s location along the county-owned Tuckerton Road.
Hennefer said the township is also studying how to best handle motor vehicle traffic along the road and pedestrian traffic for those moving from the driving range to the miniature golf course.
“There’s more to come. We’re early in the process getting everything going,” Hennefer said. “We’ve had a couple conversations about redirecting traffic or what we’re going to do with the foot traffic. We’re working through that as well.
