Comments?

aboutus@dufferinpark.ca


For the basics, see
- Website & Privacy Policies
- How To Get Involved
- The Role of the Park

Search options:

up to a month to index new postings
Google
About Us and the Park
dufferinpark.ca
web search

Search About Us and the Park:
local & up to date but simpler
See Search Page

Department Site Map

Custodians:

posted September 4, 2004

Sept 4: The Park Debt is paid off

Faster than we thought possible, the park is back in the black. To recap: It looked grim on August 4, when we found out that the back wages owed to park staff amounted to almost $9000, and that there was not enough money in the city's summer budget for our park to cover this debt, nor even enough to run the park until the end of the summer.

How did this happen? There had been, as is not uncommon in the city bureaucracy, a very long delay between staff being hired and them getting their city number (there's a huge number of staff city-wide, and it gets complicated). One application was lost in the system without our knowing, and when we tracked it down, the lengthy process (3 months) of getting the required a police check to make sure she was not a terrorist or a child molester had to start all over. That staff person alone was owed over $5000 (she started in April, and the busier the park got, the more hours she worked). The park staff thought the paycheck delay was a heaven-sent chance for enforced saving, so they got by on the cash wages they were paid for "friends of the park" activities and didn't complain about the absence of city paychecks as early as they might have. And Jutta, wanting more staff to work more hours so she could work on her book rather than working in the park, was not paying as close attention as she should have been.

How was it fixed? When we found out the extent of our troubles, we cleaned out what was left in the "Friends of Dufferin Grove Park" bank account to start paying back wages, and then the park staff got together and made a plan. Instead of getting rid of staff they all took lower wages and did some of the work for free. This meant that the fund-raising target was lowered. Then we put up some posters in the park, Jutta mentioned our troubles on the weekly market news e-mails, and good things began to happen:

Cash donations: By August 9, the staff were still owed $8385.72. Over the next three weeks, cheques arrived in the mail or were dropped off at the park, in amounts between $20 and $500. A few cheques were from grandparents in other cities. Some of the benefactors were known to us, some not. Some families who probably have little grocery money to spare, still gave us a donation. A colourful donation jar that staff person Bianca Morgan made for the wading pool got coins and bills. Jutta was stopped when she was in the park and people gave her their money. When the staff tried to give change to diners at Friday night supper, it was sometimes refused. Two wonderful local cooks, Lindsay Karabanow and Suchada Promchiri, dropped off food donations for us to sell at the food cart: rotis from Lindsay (she sells them at the farmers' market too) and mini-croissants and other confections from Suchada (who's about to open a pastry-shop at College and Dovercourt). A friendly woman whose name we don't even know came by twice with tasty Jamaican ginger-peanut brittle and banana bread that she had made, which we sold as well. By September 1, we had received $4127.61 in donations. But that was not all -

Good weather: the cool weather let go its grip enough in August that the park food sales went up, both at the food cart by the wading pool and at Friday Night Supper. The summer baking staff baked their heads off and raised more money selling bread at the farmers' market. So the park food income by the end of August was $13,923.58. After the August park supplies ($532.05) and the groceries ($4701.41) were deducted, that left $8690.12.

Farmers: we always charge the farmers a "table fee" for coming to the market (the cheapest in the city, actually - $10 per table-length plus $5 if they need to borrow a table from us). That's used to cover the market staffing and related expenses. In August, the market table fees came to $1258, so that added some more to our total income. (On top of that, the farmers donated produce here and there, lowering our Friday Night Supper grocery costs).

City winter funds: The city let us re-direct some funds from the December rink allocation to help keep the wading pool going. That means that the rink snack bar income will have to help run the rink - but there's nothing new in that. So the city contributed $4154.84 to the summer program and debt repayments from August 9 to Aug. 29.

Jutta's writing holiday: Jutta took a month off from writing her park book (writers love to procrastinate anyway) and turned her attention back to the park more fully.

Results the wading pool stayed open, and most of the other summer activities carried on. By August 29, all overdue staff wages were paid off, and there's a cushion of just over $600 back in the "Friends of Dufferin Grove Park" bank account, so we can pay for the next park organic flour order and the groceries needed for all the park events in September. On September 1, the staff ripped down all the green "we're in trouble" posters that we'd posted in the park. Wonderful. What a relief.


hosted by parkcommons.ca | powered by pmwiki-2.2.83. Content last modified on May 14, 2006, at 02:46 PM EST