The City is planning to maintain parks and other areas on a modified schedule. (submitted photo/City of North Battleford)

By Josh Ryan

Parks and Rec

City scaling back Parks Services

Apr 21, 2020 | 6:29 PM

A lack of activity in public spaces means an adjustment for city employees and the cost of services.

Administration for the City of North Battleford brought forward the Parks Services Plan for dealing with COVID-19 restrictions. All sports fields, recreation facilities, campgrounds and playgrounds will remain closed until those constraints are lifted, while staff is reduced to meet new standards for maintenance. Just eight staff members are scheduled to work until the end of May and four will be added for the summer months.

“A lot of time goes into making sure those fields and stuff are kept in pristine shape for games — things along those lines. So the staff levels are for the work that anticipate,” City Manager Randy Patrick said. “If we have to, we can adjust that, but that’s what right now what we believe would be sufficient for it.”

Trimming, mowing and shearing are all reduced drastically to save costs. Because people aren’t out in groups, that made the decision easier, Patrick said.

“Parks aren’t getting much use, it’s not as hard on the grass,” Patrick said. “We’ll adjust if that’s not the case.”

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Not every facility will have the same reduction of care. A typical mowing schedule for a sports field would be around three times a week during the spring. The schedule will now change to once a week at the most. that will fall to once a week at most during this period. Patrick said limiting maintainance on certain fields could risk their future use.

He added maintainance will need to be higher for sports fields rather than parks.

Other aspects that won’t significantly change includes handling flowers and trees throughout the city. Patrick said the costs will go down, but it is important to keep the general aesthetic of the city intact.

“We wanted to make sure the city is still looking good,” he said. “And it took us a long time to get to the standards we were at.”

The city will also continue the upkeep for areas like cemeteries, which still require work because of burials that have taken place. Even if restrictions remain in place heading into the spring, city staff intend to keep services operating as smooth as possible.

“The intent is not to cut anything out, but to scale it back,” Cheryl Deneire, director of leisure services, said.

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josh.ryan@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @JoshRyanSports