BAY CITY, MI — The effort to build a disc golf course within Bay County is gaining momentum as a second advocate has joined the push.

Last year, MLive and The Bay City Times profiled Craig Prime's campaign to develop an 18-hole course at the Bay City State Park in Bangor Township.

Those plans remain pending, but now both Bay City and county leaders say a second disc golf enthusiast is eyeing a city property for a disc golf course.

Bay County Executive Tom Hickner said he explored options for locating such a course with Bay City resident Luke Goss, including Bay City’s Middlegrounds, a former landfill located in the middle of the Saginaw River south of the Lafayette Avenue Bridge.

“As we were talking about options, that was the best idea I could come up with,” Hickner said. “They need a lot of space for this course, so that might work.”

Hickner said some issues could hinder that effort, including funds that would be necessary to develop the former dump site into a recreational area.

The county executive said, if Goss or other disc golf advocates gather enough community support, a campaign to secure grants from agencies such as the state Department of Natural Resources could solve funding issues.

“The key is to have some public land and sufficient property that ideally is in the public domain already,” Hickner said.

Bay City owns the Middlegrounds, said Chris Girard, a Bay City commissioner.

Girard said he has yet to connect with Goss regarding such a development but is aware of the effort.

“I think it’s worth exploring the opportunity,” Girard said.

MLive and The Bay City Times were unable to contact Goss immediately.

Girard said he is not aware of other citizens who have expressed interest in the Middlegrounds, a 43-acre site where officials once spent $5 million over 25 years cleaning up harmful levels of polychlorinated biphenyls and other industrial chemicals, although people occasionally play soccer on the land.