Why would a city pay $2 million for sprinklers at a golf course it was covering with more than $400,000 a year in subsidies just six years ago?
At its Oct. 15 meeting, the Clovis City Commission approved a $2 million contract with low bidder Mountain West Golfscapes to replace the sprinkler system on the first nine holes of Colonial Park Golf Course, according to the Eastern New Mexico News. It was the largest park item approved that night. It passed on the strength of the course's improving finances, and it lands while the reuse-water pond near the front of the property is still waiting on construction money.
A Course With Six Decades of Fairways
If you haven't played Colonial Park lately, here's the setup. The course opened in 1964 as Chaparral Country Club and became Colonial Park Golf Course in 2011. It's a public 18-hole, par-72 layout with tree-lined fairways and water features, according to the course's own site. The property also has a full-service bar and restaurant, a banquet facility used for weddings and parties, a driving range and a putting green. It sits at 1300 Colonial Parkway.
The City of Clovis took ownership of the course in 2011, ABC7 Amarillo reported. Since a 2019 request for proposals, Touchstone Golf, LLC has managed it for the City of Clovis. That arrangement explains this month's decision better than anything else.
The Subsidy Line That Kept Shrinking
In April 2024, the Touchstone contract was due to expire on April 30. The commission took up a five-year extension at a base management fee of $6,500 a month, plus variable incentives the operator can earn. City Manager Justin Howalt then walked commissioners through how much the city had been paying each year to keep the course running, as recorded in the April 18, 2024 commission minutes:
| Period | City subsidy to Colonial Park |
|---|---|
| 2020 | $417,000 |
| Fiscal year 2021 | $415,000 |
| Fiscal year 2022 | $333,000 |
| Fiscal year 2023 | $147,000 |
From 2020 to FY2023, the subsidy fell by about $270,000, close to two-thirds. Howalt also said the course was on track to beat its FY2023 number in the year then underway.
Commissioners talked about more than money. The same minutes record Commissioner George Jones acknowledging that things were "rocky in the beginning" but in a good place now. He said the course was in the best shape it had been in eight years and pointed to the work on the restaurant. Speaking by phone, Keaton Aucutt said they had made real strides and that the course was in great condition. Commissioner Gene Porter moved to approve the renewal, and it was adopted.
Those 2024 minutes set up this month's vote. A course that needs less public money each year, and that commissioners describe as improving, makes an easier case for a major infrastructure check. In 2026, the commission wrote that check for the front nine.
The Water Behind the Sprinklers
Sprinklers can only deliver the water the course has stored, and Colonial Park's storage has known problems.
Colonial Park's pond stores the city's reuse water, which is treated wastewater sent back out for irrigation. The Aug. 21, 2025 commission minutes describe that pond plainly. It is shallow, which leads to algae growth, and its bottom is not adequately sealed, so water soaks away into the ground.
Hillcrest Park has a related issue. Its ponds feed an irrigation system, and the minutes note that if the reuse system goes offline, the pond draws down quickly. That night the commission approved a $190,823.50 scope and fee, excluding gross receipts tax, for the engineering firm Bohannan Huston to design improvements to all of the ponds and relocate a sanitary sewer line. The plan was to seek construction money from the New Mexico Water Trust Board once the design was done.
A year later, that design is partway there. At the Oct. 12, 2026 Water Policy Advisory Committee meeting, city staff said "phase three" of the reuse project was at 60 percent design. They described it as making the Hillcrest ponds deeper "so we have more volume there," with the same deepening planned for the ponds at the front of Colonial Park, according to the meeting transcript. Staff tied that extra volume directly to irrigation. Depending on how many users are watering and when, the deeper ponds give the system capacity to draw on without pulling from the elevated storage tank or the tanks at the wastewater treatment plant.
The plan is still to finish the design before the next Water Trust Board application cycle and then apply for construction funding.
So as of this week, the front nine's new sprinklers have an approved contract. The deeper pond meant to back them up has a design about 60 percent complete and a funding application that hasn't been filed yet.
What the Rest of the Parks Got the Same Night
The Oct. 15 vote included other park work. The Eastern New Mexico News listed these items alongside the golf contract:
- Guy Leeder Fields 1–5: an almost $1.2 million contract with Musco Lighting to replace and upgrade the field lights
- Potter Park: $250,000 for playground improvements
- Sunset Park: $120,000 for playground improvements
- Sandoval Park: $120,000 for playground improvements
Taken together, the three playgrounds come to $490,000. That's roughly a quarter of what the front nine's irrigation will cost. The golf course got the biggest single commitment of the evening, and the 2024 subsidy trend explains why the commission was comfortable approving it.
What Golfers Still Don't Know
The city hasn't published the details that matter most to anyone with a weekly tee time. Minutes for the Oct. 15 meeting weren't posted as of Oct. 20. None of these have been announced yet:
- When Mountain West Golfscapes will start and finish
- Whether the first nine holes will close, or how play will be routed during the work
- Which city fund is paying for the contract
- Whether the back nine is planned as a later phase
Until the course or the city posts a schedule, the clubhouse is the best source. Current green fees are posted on the course's rates page, and tee times can be booked from the course website. If you play the front nine often, a quick call before your next round costs nothing.
A Reason to Stop By Before Construction Starts
The first big crowd at Colonial Park this fall probably won't be golfers. On Saturday, Oct. 31, the course is hosting Carts and Candy from 4 to 6 p.m. It's a free, family-friendly trick-or-treat with candy handed out from 20 decorated golf carts and side-by-sides, according to the Eastern New Mexico News events calendar. Information is available at 575-762-4775. It fits easily into a Halloween that already includes St. Bernard Farms and the morning Wings 'n' Wheels show at the airport.
The bar and grill is open to anyone, golfer or not. The putting green and driving range are there too if you want an excuse to get outside this fall. For more places around town to get outdoors, our guide to outdoor adventures and open spaces around Clovis covers the parks and lakes. Our recent post on Goodwin Lake's new trail entrance covers another spot the city has been changing.
When Colonial Park posts its construction schedule, it will be the first firm date in a water project that began with Bohannan Huston's design work in August 2025.
Here at Sagebrush Real Estate, we keep an eye on city commission agendas because projects like this shape daily life in the parts of Clovis around them. If you own a home near Colonial Parkway or Hillcrest Park and want to talk through what these projects could mean for your property, schedule a free consultation with our team.
