The sprinklers will keep sprinkling while all sides search for a way to reopen Holmes Harbor Golf Course at Freeland.

Stable sewer rates in the area may depend on it.

The Holmes Harbor Sewer District has temporarily hired two of three maintenance workers laid off when the course was shut down earlier this month.

The employees are crucial to the district’s distribution of treated water from its sewage plant off Honeymoon Bay Road, said Stan Walker of Freeland, sewer district commission chairman.

“We need to irrigate, and irrigation requires mowing,” Walker said Monday. “An important part of irrigation is evaporation, and you don’t get evaporation when the grass is three feet tall.”

He said the sewer district will pick up salaries and other maintenance costs totaling about $8,000 per month while the fate of the 18-hole course remains in limbo.

The course closed on March 14. Its owner, Holmes Harbor Community Partners, blamed the poor economy and the inability of the company to restructure its debt.

The firm hopes to sell or transfer the course so it can reopen.

Walker said the sewer district is working hard on its end to resolve the situation within the next two months.

“We’ll know more as the weeks go forward,” he said. “We’re trying to drive this to a fairly quick resolution.

“Our interest in doing this is to try to keep sewer rates from going up,” Walker added. “We’ll make decisions as required when they arrive on our doorstep.”

The 54-acre, par-64 golf course is vital to the sewer district, which has a legal agreement with the property owners to disperse processed water on the grounds.

The water passes through the treatment plant, then is sprayed by sprinklers onto the fairways and greens. It’s the only outlet for the district’s treated water, Walker said.

Established in 1993, the sewer district serves 360 homes near Holmes Harbor. It was designed to serve about 700 homes, and district officials expect that number to be reached in the next 20 years, Walker said.

He said the district’s treatment plant has a holding capacity of about 16 million gallons of water, which it stores during the winter when the golf course is too wet to sprinkle.

But as much as 13 million to 14 million gallons are dispersed onto the golf course during the spring and summer, he said, making the approaching summer season critical.

Meanwhile, Walker said the five-member sewer district commission is looking for ways to reopen the golf course.

He said one possibility may be for the course to be acquired by the South Whidbey Parks & Recreation District, but he said sewer-district officials have yet to make a formal presentation.

Walker said the state Department of Ecology has specific rules about where and how the treated water can be dispersed, and that any new arrangement for the golf course would have to include the sewer district.

“Before we start making proposals to anybody, we need to know what we can propose,” Walker said.

“But our hope is to keep the course operating,” he added, which he estimates would provide the money to cover maintenance.

“That would pay for keeping it in a usable condition for us, which we have to do no matter how we do it,” Walker said.

The golf course was designed by Sikma Enterprises, Inc. in 1994.

Developer Mark Schuster bought the course from former Seattle Supersonics basketball star Jack Sikma in 2003.

Holmes Harbor Community Partners is one of the independently managed projects in the Schuster Group’s portfolio.

Schuster said earlier this month that the golf course has been for sale for a year with no viable offers, reflecting a general downturn in the recreation industry.

He said Holmes Harbor Community Partners was about six years into a 10-year development plan when the recession and credit collapse hit.

In addition to major renovations of the course and the clubhouse, the company also planned a marina and the construction of

130 condos and single-family homes. About 35 homes have been built, most along the fairways.

Meanwhile, the golf course remains closed, the thwack of club on ball a not-too-distant echo.

“Right now it’s a great place to walk,” Walker said, but he cautioned that security on the course remains tight, so visitors shouldn’t get creative.

“It’s no free-for-all for any activity people want to engage in,” he said.

“A beer party on the greens will cause a fairly quick response by the sheriff’s office.”