By August or September of 2013 at the latest, the Auburn Golf Course Clubhouse will get a $35,000 upgrade to its audio-visual systems.

Only, it will get that upgrade without the second look Councilman John Holman had hoped to have once the actual plans for the new-system-to-be are finished and viewable this summer.

In asking for a second eyeballing, just as the City Council at its most recent meeting was poised to vote on entering into a contract with Avidex Industries LLC, a supplier and installer of the systems, Holman asked “that all costs associated with golf-course A-V equipment be referred back to council prior to expenditure.”

As Holman saw things, perhaps it wasn’t such a good idea for the City to spend money on a speaker system or a TV monitor to track tee times at such a precarious time in the economy.

“Presently, expenditures at the golf course, to me, don’t make financial sense,” Holman said. “As the economy improves, these AV improvements may well be a good, bottom-line decision — just not now.”

The audio-visual system upgrades encompass not only the clubhouse but also systems in the Auburn City Council chambers, the mayor’s office, the council rooms and common areas.

But when Councilman Bill Peloza, a strong supporter of the golf course, learned that Holman’s second review could delay the actual installation of the system improvements until 2014, he wanted nothing more to do with that second look

Peloza argued that the systems must have the upgrade, and as fast as they can be completed so that the City can market the improvements to potential customers. Once the fixes are in, Peloza continued, they may bring in additional, vital revenue to a golf course whose struggles in the last few years to make ends meet are well known.

“I don’t want to slow that process down … Any little smidgen, any little gnat that could delay this, I’m not for the amendment,” Peloza declared, fearing a potential missed opportunity to make some additional money “just because somebody wants to review $35,000.”

The monitor will likewise track how individuals are shooting at each hole, an amenity that carries a lot of weight with the lucrative tournament market, Councilwoman Largo Wales noted.

Wales said that as part of the annual budgeting process, every City department is assessed indirect costs that go to the City’s Information and Technology (IT) division for improvements and additions.

“It’s nice now to see the opportunity for the golf course to recoup some of the money that it has been paying in,” Wales said, adding that even though the golf course, an enterprise fund, is supposed to support itself without any expenditure of taxpayer dollars, it has been paying its fair share all along for IT improvements.