The parks and recreation department wants to hire four temporary employees and purchase two utility vehicles for next year to maintain a growing list of green spaces throughout the community.
Specifically, the department wants to recruit one temporary crew lead for $33,145 to oversee the maintenance activities of the city complex crew, and two temporary labourers and one utility turf vehicle to enhance weed trimming for $32,500 and $14,000, respectively. It also wants to hire one temporary parks irrigation attendant and purchase one road-safe utility vehicle to enhance, maintain and operate municipal irrigation systems for $32,000 and $20,000, respectively.
This would add $121,645 to the proposed 2021 operating budget and increase the proposed mill rate to 2.12 per cent from 1.79 per cent if approved.
City council discussed the requests during a recent budget deliberation meeting but voted to table the report until after it had reviewed the entire budget.
Background
The requirements to maintain city parks have increased during the past seven years, with no additional staff hired to keep up with the added demands, explained parks director Derek Blais. The department needs more staff to improve safety and supervision, levels of service, and irrigation system maintenance.
Since 2013, the parks and recreation department has been forced to maintain an additional 20 hectares (51 acres) of green space, 4.5 kilometres of paths, and numerous playgrounds, parks, shrub beds, washroom buildings, irrigation systems, and trees.
The parks department did well looking after parks and green spaces this year, along with new residential developments, Blais said. However, after the rainstorms in July, the heat arrived and weeds grew quickly in August. This put parks staff behind schedule.
“But we did a fairly good job overall,” he added.
Council discussion
Coun. Heather Eby supported the motions but thought it was wrong to bring them forward during the pandemic. Still, she thought it was important to maintain community spirit.
“I see more families enjoying walks and playgrounds. I think this is the best time to invest in our parks and city,” she added.
It is important to maintain that appreciation for the community, echoed Mayor Fraser Tolmie. Council needs to take the lead on keeping the city clean and neat, as that is what residents expect and is something they ask about frequently.
This additional funding is inexpensive and is something council should do since it promotes the city to outsiders, said Coun. Doug Blanc. When visitors and tourists arrive, some of the first things they should see are well-manicured boulevards and parks.
“You can’t have weeds four feet high,” he added.
Councillors Jamey Logan and Dawn Luhning both struggled to support the request. Logan indicated it was a tough time to add expenses to the budget even though he agreed with keeping the community clean.
“It is so unfortunate that it takes a pandemic to get people outside to see how wonderful the city is,” said Luhning. While she understood that residents want well-maintained parks, she has heard many complaints about weeds growing on private property.
“The city can do all we can to keep our (properties) clean, but the city has to use bylaws to enforce minimum maintenance standards around the city as well,” she continued, adding this request should be pushed to the 2022 budget deliberations.
The next 2021 budget deliberation meeting is Wednesday, Dec. 16.
