Fernando Diaz and Ciro Singleterry were tuning up the mowers at the Palm Desert Country Club on Wednesday morning, getting the machines ready to hit the brown and overgrown golf course at the bankrupt club.

“It's a nice course; it should be up and running,” said Diaz, who was the superintendent of course before the club's financial troubles closed it down in September.

With a $300,000 loan recently approved by a Los Angeles bankruptcy court now in hand, Randy Case, a co-owner of the club, said Diaz and Singleterry will be part of an ambitious effort to get the course mowed, reseeded and reopened by the end of November.

“We're back in action,” Case said. “The stress is on me to get it ready.”

City officials, club residents and the club's other creditors, such as the Coachella Valley Water District, will all be watching to see if the new infusion of cash is used appropriately.

Palm Desert Country Club Development LLC initiated reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. District Court in Riverside in June. Case, Larry Kosmont and Dahoon Investment Company are the owners of the development company.

The bankruptcy petition listed club's assets at $6,488,760, with liabilities of $18,690,841.

Robert M. Yaspan, the club's attorney, said a reorganization plan could take months to finalize. The U.S. District Court in Los Angeles approved the $300,000 loan to allow the club to operate in the interim.

Health and safety issues are Palm Desert's top priority, said Steven R. Orr, the city's special counsel on the case.

“We very much want the maintenance issues to be resolved immediately, before the reseeding,” Orr said, referring to piles of dead, rotting grass on the course, which city inspectors recently cited as a fire hazard.

The City Council voted last week to pay about $2,300 to remove the dead grass, and wants the club to reimburse the city for the work.

Crews are expected to complete the removal today, city officials said.

The club also has a large outstanding bill with the Coachella Valley Water District and was expected to pay at least part of it by the end of the day on Thursday, said Heather Engel, a spokeswoman for the district.

The payment will cover the water bill for the clubhouse and golf course bathrooms, but not the fees the club owes for water used to maintain the course, Engel said.

The district has filed a claim in the bankruptcy court for that debt, but does not expect to turn off the water for the course, she said.

The residents remain concerned about brown grass and dead branches on the course.

“It's not the greatest,” said Irma Dyck, a part-time resident out walking near the golf course on Wednesday. “It brings the value of your house down.”

Case said the branches will be removed as part of the reseeding process. The club may hire up to a dozen workers to get the job done, he said.

“If broken branches are in the way, we can't mow,” he said.

Surveying the course on Wednesday, Diaz and Singleterry said even a late November opening may not be possible.

“We're the last (to reseed),” said Singleterry. “It'll slow down the growth. It will take longer.”