The Press-Dispatch
Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/842616
The Press-Dispatch Local Wednesday, June 28, 2017 A- 5 Name of Organization ������������������������������������� Contact Person ������������������������������������������� Address �������������������������������������������������� Phone Number ��������������������Cell �������������������� Parade Date: Sunday, July 9 Parade Line Up: 5 p.m. Parade Line Up locations: 8th Street between Methodist Church and Catholic Church in Petersburg Parade starts promptly at 6 p.m. Pike County Parade Entry Float ������ Car ������ Walking ����� Other ������ Describe ������������������������������� Sunday, July 9 at 6 p.m. Fax Entry to 812-354-8028 or 812-354-6838 Please Check One Entry Deadline Friday, July 7 at 4 p.m. 18 USC 77 JULY 4TH City Of Washington Parks & Recreation Department FRIDAY, JUNE 30 5-10 PM Carnival Rides, Concessions and Games Start 7-9:30 PM Star Bound on the Bandstand SATURDAY, JULY 1 3-10 PM Carnival Rides, Concessions and Games Start 7-9:30 PM Spectre on the Bandstand SUNDAY, JULY 2 3-10 PM Carnival Rides, Concessions, Games Start 7-9:30 PM Antioch on the Bandstand MONDAY, JULY 3 5-10 PM Carnival Rides, Concessions, Games Start 6 PM Fireman's Ball 7-9:30 PM Brave New Wave on the Bandstand TUESDAY, JULY 4 3-11 PM Carnival Rides, Concessions and Games Start 4-6:30 PM Centerline on the bandstand 7:30-10 PM Terry Lee and the Rockaboggie Band on the Bandstand 10:02 PM Fireworks Over the Lake • Scoops Homemade Ice-cream • Washington Girls Softball ** More concessions added daily ** "Outstanding entertainment on the Bandstand each night" Each of these Bands draws huge crowds everywhere they perform and they will definitely Rock & Roll you! Each band plays all over the Tri-State area, don't miss these gigs! If you would like to be part of the Cele- bration please contact Kip Kelley for info! EASTSIDE PARK, WASHINGTON Join us for a Big 5 Day Celebration! More rides, games, food vendors, music and a FIREWORKS DISPLAY! The parking lot will be packed with all your favorite rides and food! Come out and support Washington's July 4th Celebration! BRADY'S AMUSEMENTS Arm Band Bracelets Daily Information available at www.washingtonin.us For questions or information: Kip Kelley / Superintendent (812)254-6010 or parksuperintendent@washingtonin.us CONCESSIONS C elebr a tio n that the Prides Creek Golf Course, Inc., board learned that it had been awarded the $100,000 grant. "I'll never forget Jim Pell calling me at home one night and saying, 'You know what? We've got to do some- thing with this golf course,'" Klipsch recalled. "He said, 'We just found out we got the grant.' I said, 'You've got to be kidding! ' Here we were, in the aftermath of a tornado, and now we've got to make a very quick decision whether we're going to go ahead and do this." "I said, 'Okay, let's have a meeting,'" Klipsch added. The Chamber had set up a fund for private donations to build a golf course in Janu- ary 1986 – the initial gift was made by Elmer and Myrtle Buchta, of Otwell – but fun- draising efforts would begin in earnest. Citizens State Bank pro- vided a shot in the arm with a $20,000 donation, while the Pike County Council chipped in another $20,000, and more than 200 donors gave $100 or more. "Many people realized the need and the benefit to our community – not just for the golfers, but to expand the park and get people to come to Pike County," Klipsch said. "They recognized that, from an economic develop- ment perspective. So they gave the money." In-kind services provided by organizations such as So- lar Sources – which did the excavating work for the golf course – and Elmer Buch- ta Trucking – which hauled sand for the golf course – helped make up the re- mainder of the local match, Klipsch said. "Different groups did different things for us that counted for our match," Klipsch said. "So we got the $100,000 grant." "Once we finally got the grant, we realized, 'We're go- ing to build a golf course,'" Klipsch added. Edmund L. Hafer & Asso- ciates in Evansville – with local resident David Hen- son serving as the project's architect – designed the course, Klipsch noted. "It was a bunch of young guys who had never built a golf course, so they kind of took it on as a project to help us," Klipsch said. "They thought it would be fun to build a golf course." Don Gress Construction Co., of Washington, built the Prides Creek Golf Course's greens. "They had never done that before," Klipsch said. "So we have an engineering firm that had never done a golf course, we had an ex- cavator that had never built greens before, and a bunch of us local guys who didn't know anything about it. But we were having a lot of fun laying out the golf course." Klipsch said that the course was originally set up to start near the Alford Road, with what is now Hole No. 6 serving as Hole No. 1, with Hole No. 4 serving as Hole No. 9. However, that was changed when Klipsch and Voyles met with Lloyd Thoren, who owned the Mid- west Telephone Company in Petersburg, to discuss the leasing of property owned by Thoren – which included a building – adjacent to the en- trance to Prides Creek Park. Thoren had partially con- verted the building, in which he also lived, into an atheist museum, Klipsch noted. "You can't make this up," Klipsch laughed. "I mean, it's so absurd, you just can't make this up." Thoren immediately agreed to lease the property to Prides Creek Golf Course, Inc., which has since fully purchased the property. "When Lloyd agreed to lease the property to us, we had to rearrange the golf course to the way it is now, and that became our club- house," Klipsch said. Construction for the golf course began in the Fall of 1991, Klipsch said, and was completed in late June 1992. "We never, never had any money," Klipsch said. "Whatever we wanted to do, we were short." Klipsch recalled a meet- ing of the board during which the installation of ir- rigated fairways was dis- cussed. "They gave us a price to put the irrigated fairways in, and we didn't have the mon- ey," Klipsch said. "I think I made the motion. I said, 'I'll make the motion we build it and put in irrigated fair- ways.' We didn't have the money. Just do it anyway. " "Then we had to run out and get the money," Klipsch added. "So we go out, knock- ing on doors, asking for more money." Klipsch laughed. "I swear, to this day, that's the way everything is still done at that golf course," Klipsch said. "We've never had the money, but we've al- ways come up with it when we needed it." On Sunday, June 28, 1992, approximately 160 individu- als who volunteered time, money, materials and helped out in any way attended Pi- oneer Day to celebrate the opening of the course. Briscoe gave a brief histo- ry of the course and its ori- gins and thanked everyone for their hard work and gen- erous donations that brought about the municipal golf course using only $20,000 of local tax money. Briscoe, who said that the course could not have been completed without the work and donations of Don Keller, of Solar Sourc- es, Buchta Trucking and Old Ben Coal, also cited in- dividual efforts by Kenny Smith, Denver Gladish and Bob Shoultz, noting that all three had worked nearly ev- ery day since construction on the course began less than a year earlier. Tim Malotte – playing in a foursome with his father, Mike, as well as Jack Pipes and Mike Shaw – was given the honor of being the first golfer to tee off at Hole No. 1. "We had a big celebration and a big ceremony," Klipsch said. "Everybody came." Twenty-five years later, Prides Creek Golf Course – a public golf course built on public land utilizing pri- vate dollars – is going strong, Klipsch said. "We get no tax money whatsoever," Klipsch said. "We sustain ourself, and it's only because of volunteers." "It's amazing," Klipsch added. "It's been 25 years and, when golf courses are failing all around us, we're still hanging in there, and I give a lot of that credit to Mike Voyles, who has, in the last few years, really taken the responsibility... and man- aging the business side. And we're very fortunate to have Tim and Beth McMillen to PRIDES CREEK GOLF COURSE HOLES-IN-ONE Name Hole Date Bill Carroll No. 5 7-29 -1992 Jeff Taylor No. 14 8 -7-1993 Jim Nelson No. 14 9 -27-1993 Matt Alley No. 14 12-22-1994 Kenny Smith No. 14 3-10 -1995 Tom Hunt No. 14 5 -23-1995 Don Keller No. 14 6 -24-1996 Bruce Tromley No. 14 7-22-1996 Don Keller No. 5 4-20 -1997 Mike Fritch No. 12 4-24-1997 Tom Vinson No. 8 5 -13-1997 Lester Page No. 14 5 -22-1997 George Witherspoon No. 1 8 -31-1997 Terry Hentrup No. 17 9 -1-1997 Tony Auberry No. 12 11-29 -1997 Ryan Coleman No. 14 4-14-1998 Steve Arnold No. 14 5 -15 -1998 Jeff Garrett No. 14 6 -16 -1995 Mel Dexter No. 14 7-6 -1998 Bill Thomas No. 14 10 -20 -1998 Mickey Howes No. 5 8 -11-1999 Chad Western No. 14 5 -4-2000 Herb Gambill No. 4 11-24-2000 Name Hole Date Jarrod Gideon No. 3 5 -10 -2001 Chad Whitehead No. 14 6 -8 -2001 Phil Johnson No. 17 5 -2-2002 Jeff Clark No. 14 10 -2-2002 Mike Hildebrand No. 14 9 -20 -2003 Mike Higdon No. 17 7-5 -2004 Trent Stone No. 8 7-14-2004 Brent Lovell No. 5 8 -23-2004 Kinzee Reed No. 3 9 -27-2007 Trent Stone No. 8 1-1-2008 Matt McCandless No. 14 7-13-2008 Cindy Walton No. 14 6 -14-2009 Joe Burkhart No. 14 10 -31-2009 Jason DeWeese No. 14 10 -19 -2010 Brick Briscoe No. 5 5 -30 -2011 Jason DeWeese No. 14 8 -5 -2011 R.C. Klipsch No. 5 9 -17-2013 Kiersten Jahn No. 5 4-30 -2015 Larry Eck No. 14 9 -12-2015 Brent Frederick No. 17 9 -12-2015 Russ Henson No. 5 10 -27-2015 Phyllis Heuring No. 5 7-1-2016 Larry Eck No. 14 6 -24-2017 run the place." Klipsch said that Prides Creek Golf Course has made a positive impact on the com- munity as well. "We're not setting the world on fire, and we're not Victoria National," Klipsch said. "Mike and I have talked about this a lot – we have to understand what we are and what we're not. We're a nine- hold public golf course that is fun to play and it's around a beautiful lake, and it's very affordable. Are they going to hold the U.S. Open here? Probably not. But it's been great for our high school golf teams, and a lot of mon- ey has been raised over the years with scrambles and different activities that have been donated to local orga- nizations. So, it goes without saying, it's been a wonderful addition to our community." Klipsch said that one of the challenges the golf course currently is facing is the fact that some of the original backers have either moved out of the area or, in some cases, have passed away, and that those who re- main are, obviously, getting older. "We're trying to get younger people involved be- cause as important as it was 40 years ago to build this golf course, when you look at it in terms of economic devel- opment going forward –with everything we have going on with I-69 and in Pike County right now – it's a very impor- tant part of the quality of life for our community," Klipsch said. "It's no less important today than it ever way. It's probably more important." "The younger people that don't know these stories cannot imagine how difficult it was to get that golf course built," Klipsch added. "It is challenging to sustain it, but it has been such a wonder- ful thing – in my opinion, of course – and I've enjoyed it, and so many people have en- joyed it. Every time I'm out there, I'm just so thankful that it's there." "It's been an interesting history," Klipsch conclud- ed. "But it doesn't seem like it's been 25 years." GOLF Continued from page 3 Pictured above is the green at Prides Creek Golf Course's Hole No. 4 during construction in 1992. The golf course will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on Saturday, July 1. Photo courtesy of Peggy Voyles Jim Pell (far left) and Judge Marvin Stratton (second from left) chat as fellow "pioneers" begin their trek onto the Prides Creek Golf Course during Pioneer Day on Sunday, June 28, 1992. The golf course, which officially opened to the public on July 1, 1992, will be celebrating its 25th anniversary on Satur- day. Photo courtesy of Peggy Voyles