The City of North Battleford’s parks department is among those seeing an impact on service levels due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Director of Leisure Services Cheryl DeNeire presented the parks plan to the city’s Planning Committee Monday. In her written memo to City Manager Randy Patrick, DeNeire noted the impact due to COVID-19 restrictions and staff reductions, which has meant closures to sports fields, recreation facilities, campgrounds and playgrounds.
For staffing in the department, the city is down to eight staff plus a manager until May 24, and then 12 staff plus a manager after that to mid-August. That is down from the 19 staff-plus-manager from summer 2019, which itself is down from 26-plus-manager from 2018.
There will be reductions in service, but even with the reductions DeNeire responded “we think we can manage most of it.”
She did note they were not 100 per cent positive because “most of it depends on weather.” A wet season would mean the grass would grow a lot more. City manager Randy Patrick did note the city had the ability to hire back those temporarily laid off if they needed to do so.
Here are a few highlights from the parks report:
For sports fields, the plan calls for reducing the grass cutting from three to two times per week, to fertilize the fields in the spring to ensure they remain in good condition, and to reduce watering to the minimal levels required to keep the fields healthy.
For parks and open spaces, play structures are closed and monthly inspections and maintenance will continue. For parks, cutting is being reduced to once a week and irrigation reduced to twice per seven-day week.
The report also noted the skate park is closed and has been filled with shale to deter people from using the venue.
For boulevards and open spaces, the plan is to redirect the cutting at Parsons Industrial Park to only city property every two weeks, and to mow the open spaces once per week instead of two, which will mean longer grass along arterials.
As for the arborist crew, regular pruning and urban tree maintenance is on hold while restrictions are in place.
