CONYERS - A new fleet of "smart" golf carts will soon be coming to the Cherokee Run Golf Course.

The Conyers City Council unanimously approved the purchase of 64 2016 Precedent i3 with Visage Club Cars electric golf carts for $251,000. This replaces the previous fleet of 62 2011 Precedent carts from Club Cars.  

City Manager Tony Lucas told the city council Wednesday night, "We've gotten almost five years of service out of our fleet, which is almost unheard of in the industry. Club Car treated us so well in this process."

The top three companies to bid were Club Car, EZ Go and Yamaha. Club Cars gave a slightly higher trade-in value to the 62 2011 golf carts, said Lucas, and threw in a free utility golf cart. Yamaha's bid did not include the price of the smart system, which would have added about $135,000 to their price of $253,440.

The new golf carts will come equipped with a control system that can slow or shut a cart down if it wanders into prohibited areas, such as steep or rocky terrain.

"With golfers, there's some knuckleheads in the crowd; they have from time to time abused our equipment," said Lucas.

The system, in addition to serving as a navigation system, will also allow each cart to be tracked and will allow messages to be sent to each cart.

Volume at the city-run golf course has risen about 5 percent over the last year, said Course Manager Tommy Moon. The city took over operations of Cherokee Run in 2010. The golf course runs on a "enterprise" budget funded by user fees, separate from the taxpayer funded regular city operations budget.