OSHTEMO DGC at RISK of BEING SHORTENED

We need Oshtemo Township residents to attend the Parks Board meeting on Feb 9th. If you want to add more holes and prevent the shortening of existing holes, please be there! A buddy of mine went to the Oshtemo Township meeting today for the Parks Board. We need a strong representation of township residents at their next meeting on Feb 9th!! They are looking at changing holes because it is "intimidating" for walkers to have to walk near the disc golfers. WTF!! I'm not that bad! Please attend if you love Oshtemo Disc Golf Course. Be there and bring your neighbor :)

[The FORCE]

I got this info from Larry LaBond on Facebook. He is the attendant to the meeting.

[Ryan S. Flahive]

How about a petition? That might be a good way for non Oshtemo residents to voice thier displeasure. there are several websites that can organize such a petition. One I have used is ipeitiions.com.

[Vince Brooks]

Love the course. I'm not a resident, but I would be willing to sign my name to a non-resident petition if that would be helpful.

[The FORCE]

The best thing to do would be to get anyone you know who lives in Oshtemo Township to attend the meeting on Feb 9th. Thanks to everyone who has expressed their concern. I am going to post a flyer at the course's message board in the next couple days to reach out to more people.

[Ken Long]

I don't believe you live in Oshtemo Township...do you Wade?.
K.

[The FORCE]

I don't live in Oshtemo Township. I have to do something. Nobody knows what goes on at meetings because people don't go to township meetings like they should.

[Tom Westphal]

I found a PDF file online of the course layout here...

http://www.oshtemo.org/maps/Township%20Park%20Color%20Map.pdf

From the looks of it the only holes that have discs being thrown any where near towards walking paths are #1, #3, and #10. I'm not as familiar with the walking paths as I am the disc golf course, so I can't say for certain that those would be the only ones affected.

FWIW, wouldn't it be easier for them to move an ***UNPAVED*** walking path than to pull up a basket set in concrete and have to reset it again? Maybe that is the suggestion to make at the township meeting. Money considerations for having to move the baskets versus a new dirt path!!!

Tall Tom in Battle Creek

[Tom Westphal]

I also just thought that you should remind them that Oshtemo was a key course in getting the 2008 World Championships to be held Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. It's because courses like Oshtemo are in the area that we were able to host the Worlds that year.

Tall Tom in Battle Creek

[hg]

Oshtemo was such a fun course. First course I played in Michigan! I will continue checking this thread for any information on how an out of towner can help. Kzoo golf needs this course!

[Larry LaBond]

The long tee on Hole #2 is the most likely affected, followed by Hole #6, and the long tee on Hole #4. They are developing a park master plan and the company that they hired to develop this plan feels that the disc golfers are intimidating to some of the walkers. They are also planning on moving the practice basket somewhere along hole #1. This is all that is being suggested. I have been trying to get 6 additional holes added to the course, but some of the residents that were at the meeting feel that the courses uses enough land and we should be happy with what we have. I was also told that we need to compromise with the changes in the park. The current proposed expense for the changes to the park is currently over $700,000. These changes include the addition of a basketball court, tennis courts, new pavilion, changes to the old pavilion,, new bathrooms, paved trail to the township hall, changes to the parking lot, improvements to the trails, but nothing to the disc golf course except to move it more out of sight. Some compromise.

This is a difficult situation. Oshtemo is a vary conservative community and most of the people that attend meetings and have the ear of the elected officials do not fit in the typical disc golf demographics or care for the people who do (hence "intimidating"). We do not need people who are not residents attending the meeting. It will then turn into a "special interest group" coming into their community telling them what to do. Some of the residents who attend these meetings don't like non residents using their park. The best thing that we can have is Oshtemo residents only, come to the meeting and calmly voice their support for the disc golf course. Getting angry or crowding the meeting won't help. We mainly need to prove that the Oshtemo township residents like and enjoy the course. If you are a non-resident, the best thing that you can do is to not drink alcohol, leave empties, and engage in other behavior that a conservative community might frown on (i.e. vandelism,...). This is an issue that needs to be changed. Other people that use the park do see this stuff and it's evidence when it happens. Please be smart!!!

The changes that are being proposed are not that close to happening yet and maybe we can get some things done to improve the existing course, if not the extra 6 holes. So, Oshtemo residents that support disc golf please come out to the meeting on Feb 9th. I will post more details when I have them.

[Destraayer]

If the park board wants a compromise, in order to satisfy all parties, maybe we should let them shorten the 3 holes that intimidate the walk path, but they must allow use to add 6 more holes. I would willing to sacrifice the length of 3 holes in order to add 6 more. Just a thought...

[AndroidJonny]

Not even in Michigan but giving some help. Bump Bump