Disc Golf and 20 Train Cars Headed to Port Jervis
News of the rising popularity of disc golf, also called Frisbee golf, reached Mike Ward through Brewery co-owner David Krantz two years ago. Then others mentioned its ascendance in Warwick and elsewhere, said Ward, Outdoor Club of Port Jervis president. Instead of hitting golf balls toward holes in the ground surrounded by manicured turf, disc golf players throw a plastic disc into a basket. Signs by each “tee” provide rules and directions for players who wend their way on paths through and around woods. Richard Clapp, another Port Jervian, came up with ways to make the game viable in Port Jervis, said Ward, and now heads the Outdoor Club’s Disc Golf Committee.
Ward already has local business people interested in sponsoring holes in exchange for discreet advertising, and that would cover much of the $23, 968.74 cost, he says.
“So many businesses owners are willing to get involved. You couldn’t ask for a lower cost, and you don’t clear trees. You utilize them,” Ward enthused. “It won’t cost the city any money.”
He said he encountered like-minded interest from Port Jervis Mayor Kelly Decker, but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed moving forward last year. Nevertheless, a disc golf committee had online meetings and wrote an illustrated plan that proposes two disc golf courses. The nine-hole Waterfront Course would be created southeast of the pump track between the river access road and the railroad tracks. It would be a short walk from downtown, minimizing transportation needs, Ward noted. He sees it as a place that would introduce the game locally and generate interest.
“Anyone can play. It’s less stress than hiking,” he said. “Anyone can acquire the skill of throwing a Frisbee.”
The 18-hole Watershed Course would be reachable from Main St. in Sparrowbush and located along three watershed trails—Pine View, Tufted and Delaware Trails—with parking by the caretaker’s house nearby.
Ward anticipates getting Common Council approval for the plan by the end of September. The plan timeline aims to begin a Port Jervis Disc Golf Club as part of the Outdoor Club in September and to build a trial disc golf hole in October to test its durability, cemented into the ground. In spring of 2022, the plan would have Port Jervis High School students help clean up the riverfront area. The nine-hole course would be built in the summer, and the 18-hole waterfront course would follow in the fall.
That course, Ward said, would be suitable for “easy tournament fundraising.”
The Outdoor Club also oversees the creation of the transportation museum by the train round house near Pike Plaza. Ward says they have been busy exposing buried tracks in preparation for the arrival of 20 cars, including box cars that may be rented for office space. One will have doors that can project videos for outdoor movies, suited to this pandemic-ridden time. Three cabooses are on the way too, and one will be the museum’s main office, he said.
Plans are also afoot to restore the roundhouse that was burned down years ago.
“We’ll use nonflammable materials, beginning with a steel roof,” Ward said. “When there’s more money, we’ll enclose it.”