Lee Harlowe / Submitted photoAnnual Redmond Block Party at Juniper Golf Course, 2015.

Juniper Golf Course falls under the domain of the city parks department for the first full year in 2016. The golf course moved from finance to parks last spring due to more positions within city parks being filled. A year of community-oriented events has been planned, with the final schedule coming out next month.

CourseCo, the private golf course-management company that has been at the helm at Juniper for almost five years, plans to invest in capital improvements as well as help coordinate community events. Improvements are still being planned but could include a face-lift of the clubhouse. The parks department will likely have an open house on capital improvements to get public comment next month.

“I’ve been in the golf course business for 40 years,” said Lee Harlow, who was general manager of the course before recently moving to California. “The model here is the most common I’ve seen, where the city owns the asset and hires a professional company to manage the course.”

“Having city staff run the course wouldn’t be possible,” said Annie McVay, parks and administration division manager. Having the golf course as a parks asset “is another avenue to have events, and CourseCo has been great in spearheading those events.”

Events planned for this year are not golf related, the soonest being a 5-kilometer community run Feb. 14, with proceeds going to the Ridgeview High School track team, which will host the Intermountain Conference district meet this season. The run will end with a Valentine’s Day buffet. Other potential events include a movie night on the driving range and opening the course to disc golf. But Juniper superintendent Kurt Noonan assured that as focus increases on nongolf events, Juniper remains first a community golf course. He added that Redmond residents receive $10 off their first round of play at Juniper.

“It’s a golf course first, so the golf schedule is what’s planned around for events,” Noonan said. “We just work around golf.”

Juniper Golf Course is also home to nesting sites for kestrels, ospreys and blue birds. The course partnered with the East Cascades Audubon Society for the kestrel nesting site and Pacific Power for the osprey platform. The First Tee program, a free educational field trip hosted by Juniper, brought in Obsidian middle schoolers, who built birdhouses and hung them around the course.

“If you’re golfing and see me and 15 students putting up bird houses, I think that is a good thing,” Noonan said. Noonan, who headed the First Tee program, asked any teachers interested to call him.

McVay said the biggest challenge so far is spreading awareness in the community that Juniper is open to the public and hosts nongolf-related events. A restaurant and bar are located inside the clubhouse, which is open every day of the week.

“It’s been fun trying to come up with ideas to bring people in,” McVay said. “They will be able to attend a variety of events that will appeal to runners and disc golfers alike. And after the improvements, this will be the best place in Redmond to get a beer or dinner.”

The clubhouse also is available as a small venue events center. Around 30 Christmas parties were held at Juniper this holiday season. Other events held last year and planned again for this year are the annual Redmond Block Party, Breakfast with Santa and a Fourth of July barbecue and fireworks viewing.

“There are many events that happen here that people don’t know about that having nothing to do with golf and are for the community,” Harlow said.

Both city parks and Juniper are open to third-party events as well, inviting anyone interested to contact McVay.

“Juniper is more than just playing golf,” Noonan said. “Talking to golfers and nongolfers alike, if they come out here, their view of golf could do a 180 flip. We’re good stewards of the environment — we don’t have the budget to waste water or fertilizer. And we’re providing more than just golf here.”

— Reporter, 541-548-2185, cbrown@redmondspokesman.com