Cecil County Disc Golf aims to maintain disc golf courses throughout Cecil County

The work at Johnson Farms comes as CCDG played a part in setting up multiple courses on public park land and private property throughout Cecil County. Once completed, the Conowingo course would be the group’s second course on private land. Cecil County Disc Golf’s one private location is currently at its Three Creeks course in Rising Sun.

The group’s private course gives CCDG flexibility in maintaining and keeping courses in playable shape. Cecil County Disc Golf offers one-year, three-year and lifetime memberships for its private courses to help pay for resources and materials to maintain the course. The landowners are responsible for the care of the course with assistance from other volunteers.

“It gives it a little bit more of a country club feel in the sense of you pay for something, you want it to look nice without yourself doing any work,” Cecil County Disc Golf President Kyle Van Dyke said. “That money goes into not only the fuel and the cost of stuff, but the motivation for the owner to keep it maintained.”

Cecil County Disc Golf’s Three Creeks course is open to members Monday through Saturday and non-members Wednesday and Friday during daylight hours. Van Dyke said offering memberships allows for more transparency, as members of the public enter onto landowners private property.

“The biggest thing for the memberships is just the traceability of people playing the course because if you open it up to the public you’re going to have people coming all the time day and night,” Van Dyke said. “There’s trash that’s left behind, people don’t quite respect it as well as they should.”

Lifetime memberships for private courses are currently sold out. The group’s president hopes to have baskets in the ground for its second course by next spring.

Van Dyke and Cecil County Disc Golf also assisted in setting up courses at both Calvert Regional Park in North East and Brantwood Regional Park in Elkton. Van Dyke designed both courses at Calvert and Brantwood Parks.

According to Cecil County Parks and Recreation Director Clyde Van Dyke, CCPR placed tee pads and bought baskets for the Calvert course, while Cecil County Disc Golf assisted in building benches and placed hole markers at various spots. To construct Brantwood, CCDG worked alongside Cecil County Friends of Parks and Recreation to raise enough money for the project.

Cecil County Parks and Recreation is responsible for the maintenance of the courses at Calvert and Brantwood.

In mid-July, CCPR maintenance crews were tasked with restoring four bridges along the Calvert course after severe weather closed the course to the public. The course closed on July 5 and reopened July 23. Crews have repaired or replaced two of the damaged bridges. Two other bridges are still in the works of being reinstalled.

The repairs at the Calvert course came as the Cecil County Parks and Recreation maintenance team covers close to 700 acres of land across Cecil County. According to Cecil County Friends of Parks and Recreation, one full-time employee covers close to 100 acres of land. The statewide average is one full-time employee per 25 acres.

Clyde Van Dyke said County Executive Danielle Hornberger is aware he could use more staff. He credited the County Executive for two additional hires after a successful campaign through in house programs and use of revenues.

Van Dyke said he and his employees always get the job done.

“We get it done, if I got to be on a mower, I’ll be on a mower,” Van Dyke said. “People never understood how understaffed we were because we always got the job done.”

Cecil County Parks and Recreation offers volunteer days for those in the community to get involved in helping maintain county park land.