BROOKINGS — Years of planning to connect Edgebrook Golf Course to a more reliable water source culminated May 26 when the Brookings City Council voted 7-0 to approve a project bid — even though the winning offer came in nearly $350,000 over engineering estimates.
With five bidders in all, LL & Sons Excavating Inc. rose to the top of the heap with a low bid of $1,804,766.08. The engineer’s estimate was $1,458,440, a difference of $346,326.08. The bids were opened May 4 and were a “rebid” effort after the first round of bids in November came in higher than expected.
The city has allocated $1.2 million toward the project, which will be paid out of the city-owned golf course’s enterprise fund. The difference will be made up through cutbacks including:
• $95,000 in topsoil and concrete repairs.
• $70,000 in strategic improvements in 2027-28.
• Delaying irrigation projects for three more years.
• $90,000 cut in a proposed pump.
• Also on the table is a staff recommendation to raise fees in 2027 to build up reserves.
“This project is a critical, long-term infrastructure investment for Edgebrook Golf Course,” Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Kristin Zimmerman said. “The water sourcing connection to the Brookings Municipal Utilities’ raw water system will improve irrigation reliability, reduce dependence on existing water sources and help support the long-term sustainability and operational viability of the golf course.”
There were several elements that drove up the project’s price tag, she said, including dewatering and mobilization costs. Her insights were reinforced by Banner Associates representative Paul Kraft:
• Mobilization: This typically includes a contractor’s cost of getting to the project site, along with incidentals and profit margin. Kraft said mobilization costs are typically 8% to 10% of the total contract. With the rebid, though, they were much higher, ranging from 15% to 27%, which was a similar percentage to the first round of bidding.
• Dewatering: Kraft said this cost was reduced from the original, late 2025 bid via, among other things, reducing the scope of water storage changes. Despite those efforts, the rebid cost remained at or above the engineer’s estimate, albeit lower than in 2025.
• Solventum: Due to soil contamination concerns on the west side of Interstate 29, the company requested that a roughly 200-foot section of the water pipeline be elevated above ground by 2 feet so as not to disturb or interrupt a stormwater drainage channel.
According to a letter from Banner, the pylons required for this — and there will be 20 or so — have cost estimates ranging from $2,000 to $10,000 apiece. Taken all together, it resulted in increased project price points, which in turn led to attempts to reduce costs elsewhere.
“We’re hopeful that, at the end of the day, we can make sure that everything comes under budget and get this project to completion,” Kraft said.
Council reaction
Councilors gave voice to their thoughts following the presentation by Zimmerman and Kraft, including Wayne Avery, who spoke to the necessity of the work even in the face of higher costs.
“I know we’ve been working on this for quite some time and explored many different sources of water … every one of those reached some kind of a dead end or an impasse that we couldn’t pursue that any longer,” he said. “This proved to be the most reasonable source of a permanent solution to our golf course watering problem. It’s more expensive than we had hoped, but we shouldn’t have to deal with it in the future.”
Avery continued, “In a drought situation, our source of water is not going to dry up. We don’t have to maintain equipment — once it’s done, it’ll be the responsibility of BMU. We won’t have to have any city employees operating the irrigation part of the pumping system. So, there’s a lot of benefits to this, and I think it’s just going to be an investment long-term, and I think we just have to move forward with it.”
He further pointed out that Edgebrook’s popularity is increasing. “The course has had more use in the last couple years — at one point, we thought golfing was on the downhill trend, and now it’s decidedly not that way.”
“That’s a good problem for us to have,” Zimmerman noted.
Next, Mayor Oepke “Ope” Niemeyer brought Mother Nature into the conversation.
“With the last (few) days being hot and very parched, how are we doing for a water source for this summer while this project is being done?” he inquired.
“Let’s all hope for rain,” Zimmerman said.
“Right. Pray for rain,” Niemeyer agreed.
“Yeah. We’ll be doing the best that we can,” Zimmerman said. “We have resources available to specifically to keep the greens green. The fairways can go dormant a little bit; just as long as we keep the greens green, we’re in good shape.”
Project timeline
Kraft estimated that the water source project at Edgebrook will take two to three months to complete, and the contractor has a window from June through November to start and finish it.
“The dewatering is going to take a little bit of time and then putting the liner in is going to take a little bit of time,” he said.
Kraft hasn’t talked with the contractor yet regarding its construction schedule.
“This is going to be very much weather- and contractor-dependent,” he said.
— Contact Mondell Keck at [email protected].
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