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Architectural Landscape Department                                    

The Architectural Landscape Department (ALC) has specific guidelines for owners when they anticipate making any additions, changes/modifications or restorations to the exterior of their home, lot and/or landscape. Permits need to be approved and issued in advance of the work being done. The reason for this is to assure that lots are maintained, modified and upgraded in a manner that maintains the quality, consistency and architectural appropriateness within our IronOaks community. Our staff is eager to help! Our office hours are 8:00 am to 12:00 pm, Monday through Thursday. The phone number is 480-802-2776. Come in or give us a call if you have any questions. 

May 2015

Spring is here, and summer is right around the corner! With warmer air temperatures comes warmer soil temperatures as well. Once the soil temperature is warmer than 65 degrees, the Bermuda will start coming out of dormancy. This basically means that the "brown" grass will be turning green again. This is already happening in many areas. I will do everything I can to promote this process as much as possible by slicing, spiking and verti-cutting.

Along with warmer temperatures, the Bermuda grass will need plenty of water to start coming back. I have been increasing the irrigation scheduling across the board, as well as watering the roughs more often. I will be applying granular fertilizer to the roughs to help speed up the growth which will also mend some of the "bare" areas on the Palms nine. Any of the open trenches that currently don't have much grass will fill in this summer.

The Lakes nine closed for renovations on May 11^th. There will be no mainline or lateral pipe installation on the Lakes. The current sprinkler heads, along with the swing joints, will be replaced and repositioned. New irrigation controllers will be installed with wireless communication to the maintenance yard for computer operated irrigation. All Mainline and lateral line gate valves will also be replaced. The street crossing from hole 6 to hole 7 mainline will be replaced with HDPE pipe which should last for many years, and will eliminate the fear of having another break under a major street. The good news is, there will be no trenching needed to do this work. All of the bunkers will be renovated. Some bunkers will be eliminated and converted to "grassy hollows." Tees will be leveled and enlarged in some areas, and new forward tees will be built.

I look forward to another successful summer and I am excited about the renovation project. We will continue to help the transition process to the warm season grass to provide the best playing conditions for our golf membership.

Charles Keys

Golf Course Superintendent

Disabled Vets Fly Fished IronOaks 

Saturday, May 2, 2015, was a day of honor for IronOaks and fourteen members of the Sun Lakes Fly Fishing Club. They were hosts to 13 disabled veterans from "Project Healing Waters FlyFishing". SLFFC members showed up with extra flies, rods and three golf carts for bathroom runs to assist the veterans throughout the morning while they fly fished. PHW's policy is to make sure that there are enough volunteers to provide one on one coverage if help is needed.

Upon arrival at 7:30 am, the disabled veterans, PHW's volunteers, and SLFFC members were provided breakfast burritos,courtesy of Faye Stone, General Manager of IronOaks. After 3 ½ hours of fishing, all of the veterans were able to "hook up" with several bass with most of the veterans able to land at least one. The outstanding veteran was Michael Adams who landed over 20 Bass. I believe this might even be the record catch for less than a one half day of fishing at an Ironwood Lake. His success definitely had most of the members paying attention to his techniques and asking questions. Afterwards everyone shared a few fish stories, and enjoyed brats and dogs at the Ironwood restaurant. The lunch was sponsored by an anonymous contributor and the members from SLFFC.

Fly fishing helps disabled veterans with their motor skills, and is by far one of the most challenging, but yet relaxing activities, that anyone can enjoy. SLFFC members look forward to hosting the veterans 6 to 8 times a year at both the IronOak's and Cottonwood's fishable lakes. The club's next hosting will be sometime in the fall after the temperatures drop.