The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON—Fundraising efforts are paying off for the Friends of the Touchet Valley Golf Course, as they look forward to construction of an underground sprinkler system at the golf course.

A fiscal sponsorship agreement was made with the Blue Mountain Community Foundation (BMCF), Walla Walla, last year. According to Sean Thurston from the Friends of the Touchet Valley Golf Course, the agreement created a fund specifically for an irrigation reservoir allowing tax-deductible donations for the project.

Thurston said Golf Course Architect John Steidel was hired in 2019 to recommend modifications to improve the quality of the golf course, reduce water use, and reduce maintenance costs. One of Steidel’s recommendations was to install an irrigation reservoir to mitigate an intermittent water supply issue from the West End Irrigation District. Local water experts agreed with Steidel’s advice, and he identified a location and provided a plan for the reservoir design.

Thurston said the budget for the reservoir is $113,000.

“We raised over $80,000 in 2020, which includes almost $50,000 in donations to the Blue Mountain Community Fund in December, alone,” he said.

Total funds raised for the reservoir are about $95,000. He hopes the remainder can be covered by grants, and donations, in 2021.

The reservoir is being engineered by the county Public Works Department with construction planned for the fall.

Touchet Valley Golf and Recreation, formerly known as the Dayton Country Club, created an aggressive five-year strategic plan for the golf course in 2019. The plan calls for partnering with multiple organizations to fund and construct an underground irrigation system and potentially expand the existing course.

The Underground Sprinkler System Installation project has been broken into three phases; Planning and Fundraising, Irrigation Reservoir Construction, and Underground Sprinkler System Installation.

Fundraising for Phase 3, the Underground Sprinkler System Installation, will take place in 2022.

Tax-deductible donations can be made payable to the Blue Mountain Community Foundation. Include the fund name: TVGC Irrigation Project and mail the donation to Blue Mountain Community Foundation P.O Box 603, Walla Walla, WA 99362.