Stonykill DGC, Chatham NY

[Jeff Wiechowski]

The town of Chatham, NY has given us the green light to start looking into a ONE HUNDRED ACRE plot of land to put a course in !!!! 20 min from the MA/NY border, 10 minutes off I-90 down the Taconic.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Chatham+town+hall,+Chatham+NY&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=43.848534,93.076172&ie=UTF8&hq=Chatham+town+hall,&hnear=Chatham,+Columbia,+New+York&ll=42.38478,-73.560784&spn=0.010033,0.022724&t=h&z=16

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Agenda for course development:

Done:
A. Town Recreation Director has been convinced Disc Golf is something Chatham wants.
B. Town Land with no current use has been given green light for DGC. Has parking lot, bathroom during some business hours, power line trails and some rough walking trails. SO far, no evidence of off road vehicle use. Small part of land was used by Town for gravel mine. Not sanctioned by DEC and therefore closed, supposedly.
C. Received permission to cut down trees.
D. Encouraged by TRD to contact Columbia Land Conservancy for help with improvements. They have helped with other park development projects in the town. If this goes right, it could give the CLC the idea that DGC's are good conservative use of the many, many acres CLC has.
E. On 10/18/10 Greg & I bush whacked some of the land and found it good for disc golf. It is probably not good for a toboggan run (we could not find a big hill long enough to be worth it), nor much good for hiking trails (no views, no unique habitat), nor XC trails (would not be very long 2 miles at most). Plenty of varied habitat and elevation for some great holes.

To Do:
1. Purchase topo maps, locate exact boundary of land available and walk potential holes many times to find the best ones. Talk to some of the adjacent land owners for more acreage, extra parking lots, history of the land, etc.
2. Work with Town on securing funding for disc golf course, and maybe hiking trail, XC trail, toboggan run. There are 104 acres.
3. Fund raise for additional funds
4. Construction begins...

[Ven Vardin]

The Chatham Town Board is meeting on Thursday 2/17 at 7PM to review the proposal by DisCap to build and fund a course on town property. If anyone has time to show up at this meeting that would be cool. Of course we're mostly looking for Town residents to show up, a few people form the larger area this course will serve would be great.

And we'll spread the Karma with our "neighbor" course Crane Hill as they are in front of their town board at the same time.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Town Hall meeting tonight, 7pm
Click here for location

"Hi Steve: The board seems to be in favor of the course , so now the next step is to make sure the public knows about this, so at our next workshop meeting which is April 7th at the Town Hall, we will invite the general public esp the neighbors of the town hall, so they can ask questions and find that this is a low impact activity to the property. We would want you and a few others there hopefully to answer questions. Then providing all goes well, the board can officially vote on the project at the April board meeting, which would be the 21st. I will collect reference letters from the other courses as i said i would do."
Recreation Director Shari Franks

[Jeff Wiechowski]

The Chatham Town Board voted to approve the proposal to build a disc golf course on 104 acres surrounding the town hall and transfer station. All we need for the construction phase is one person OSHA certified on Chain Saws. Shari & I are seeking information on that. I already have a draft time line and fund raising brochure. I will send them to the DisCap Board for feedback and approval within a week. First up are a few delicate negotiations so it might take a few weeks to really get going.

[Ven Vardin]

NEFA members in the Berkshires and Eastern NY that want to help with the new course in Chatham NY can contact me, at oursleft@gmail.com or 518-365-3157.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Look for a fundraising tournament in early spring to help get this project moving forward. We're thinking of Crellin Park for a temp course because the permanent site is heavily wooded and the design/layout hasn't been completed.

[Matt Stroika]

Thats awesome. I think that part of the country is so beautiful as well as having a great terrain for DG.

On a side note, I always get a kick out NY calling rivers kills.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Nate Davis has an update on the baskets that the welding class at Questar was making for us. They used a Discraft Chainstar model for the design. Nate will bring them 150' of chains to attach to 4 baskets which are nearly completed. At this point the materials are coming out of our pockets or from any one else who wants to donate at this point of the project. Then the baskets will need to be painted or dipped. (any suggestions about that would be appreciated since these baskets will be temporary for the initial 9 hole course we are currently working on and we'd like to keep the cost down but not have them rust out after only one season.)
Once Nate has a $ figure we'll have a better idea of how much each basket costs to make.

Any one interested in getting involved with the course during the spring and summer is welcome to come out to the meeting at the Peint O Gwrw in Chatham @6pm on 4/17 to find out what we're up to.

[Rob Walker]

Half an hour past Pittsfield! I was planning on playing Holyoke and Pittsfeild in one day this spring, but maybe I'll have to give this course a shot instead. Am I right if I assume that it isn't quite up and running yet?

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Correct Rob, there's only a preliminary design and some ribbons on trees as far as I know.

Joralemon is only 59 min from Bousquet...........

[Jeff Wiechowski]

More progress on the course this past weekend......

Big thanks to Nate, Jake and Dr. Jeff for helping on Sunday. We cleaned up most of the first 4 holes and marked trees to be cut down. with the help of some extra pairs of eyes we made some adjustments and even lengthened a few of the holes too.

For now the only other work to be done is clearing trails and fairways. Then I'll use the bucket and post idea for object pins until we have the holes completed.

Now we wait for the town to do the cutting... :whistle:

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Joe was able to take down all the trees i asked him to on Wednesday and he left some decent sized logs to make benches or stools. There is still a lot of wood to be cleared out plus all the fallen branches. He also offered to do some brush hogging in the field if I can mark trails down the fairways and walking paths.

After some additional trimming of branches and removing some Honeysuckle bushes and saplings, the fairways will be good to go. Then we need to clear out and level off tee areas where there are roots above ground or just uneven ground. I'll be out there Saturday morning around 9 -12.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Workday this Sunday !!!

The final clearing of the trees the town cut down and weedwhacking fairways.
Thinking I'm gonna bring a basket to play the first round.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

I went out to Chatham today and helped install the 1st basket!!!

Gene and company have got a great start. 9 playable holes. The flow is little tricky. And some of the holes will be extended and tweaked as it gets played. 1 basket and bucket on poles for the other 8. Another homemade basket should go in this week. This the monthly coming up next Saturday has added prizes and we got a $150 cash donation to help our fundraising!!! Thank You Tierra Farms!! http://www.tierrafarm.com/

[Jeff Wiechowski]

9 Discatchers will be installed in the spring.
A memorial event is planned for May 4th, for the course founder, Ven Vardin.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

This is the current layout as of April 6th 2014



Many hands did many things on Sunday...........



He's not only the President, he's a member too

[Travis Bushore]

Love seeing the gravel pit behind Kenji in the last picture. Stony Kill is going to be a lot more fun when we put in the second 18 hole course! For now, the 9 holes are awesome, and not easy! You will be rewarded for good throws here, and punished for a throw that is only slightly errant. I've played it 5 times since we put in the baskets Sunday, and I don't see it getting boring anytime soon. Can't wait for some gravel on the tees which are understandably soft after only 4 days to get the dirt trampled down. Some of you NEFA guys from Mass need to come check this out, it's only minutes from the border. Great job Gene, Jeff, Kenji and all the Discap guys. See you at the next workday!

[Titan_Bariloni]

NEFA guys from Mass need to come check this out, it's only minutes from the border

on the radar..thanks to all who crushed it

[Jeff Wiechowski]

May 4th
10am bag tag monthly

1pm memorial round

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Gravel drop this week and we'll be hauling it out to tees this Saturday and Sunday.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

39 DisCappers came out for the monthly today............. another 60 friends and family of the late Ven Vardin played afterwards.
With the handful of additional spectators, we had OVER 100 PEOPLE out to a BRAND NEW 9-hole course today!!!!

Fundraising efforts were VERY GENEROUS.
I still cannot believe the numbers that showed up in the cold and rain.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Continued dedication from a core group of locals is showing on every hole. The place is looking and playing AWESOME !!!!

Can't wait to see the expansion to 27 holes............

[Jeff Wiechowski]

WE got the OK to move forward on Phase 2 of the Stonykill DGC......... Get ready for an epic 27 hole course !!

[Jeff Wiechowski]

We procured a skid-steer and stump grinder for this weekend.
We will be there all day Saturday and Sunday moving pavers to various locations and clearing downed trees and debris.

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Thanks to NEFA and their generous grant, we will be expanding this course to 18 holes in 2015 !!!

[Jeff Wiechowski]

Paver tees are coming !!!

[Jeff Wiechowski]

And a shiny new kiosk!!