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Park Maintenance during covid 2020
Playground
December 11, 2020
The city's tech services staff have been working for a week to instal the new sandpit drainage area. Now it's done, we'll see how it works next spring.
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September 2020, sandpit water drainage
From Tech services staff:
We will be placing 2 or 3 half buried logs approximately 15 feet from the alley to stop the water flow and raise the grade between the logs and the alley.
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In front of the logs we will be trenching and installing a 100mm weeping tile wrapped with ¾ inch clearstone and filter fabric. This weeping tile will drain the overflow water to a French drain we will be excavating
approximately 60-80 feet away from the logs to the west. Our 'weeping pit' will be further away from the alley than the drawing shows. This pit will be approximately 6-8 feet wide, 10-15 feet long and 5 feet deep.
It will be filled with ¾ clear gravel with filter cloth on top, leaving 6-8 inches for soil. Once complete we will regrade the area above it with top soil and seed. We will be including a small monitoring well flush with grade to monitor the water levels inside the drain.
August 4,2020, from City Councillor Bailao
Aug.6: sandpit tap is back
"City staff are also able to activate the water tap – the immediate area currently has some depressions and staff will complete grading this week – should be complete by Friday"
August 6, 2020
Sandpit tap turned on for the season.
August 27: good tap replaced by bad tap
August 27, 2020
List serve post by Jutta:
Four city staff plus the area supervisor came with a backhoe and dug up the sandpit water tap. They replaced it with a nedw tap that only runs 15 seconds at a time. No fun, no more little river engineers. The sandpit emptied out fast.
There's a workaround. The water valve has an additional connector for a garden hose. So over the weekend I brought down and connected the community-garden hose, and the sandpit filled up again with kids. The waterplay area almost always gets more use than the wading pool. read more
Washrooms
August 4, 2020, from City Councillor Bailao:
Dear Dufferin Grove Friends,
I have been working with City staff over the past few weeks to address concerns with Dufferin Grove Park. I am pleased to update you and let you know that I have secured additional resources for the Park in order to address the concerns we've had with several issues.
· The washrooms will be opened at 8:00 am and closed at 9:00 pm
· They will be cleaned daily
· City staff were able to clear out some accumulated garbage and debris that was in the Park
· With the City now moving to Stage 3 in the provincial re-opening process City staff will be litter picking the playground area daily and they have been notified regarding the needle that was found in the Park so that this will get special attention'
· The sand in the playground will be raked through this week and when possible topped up
· City staff are also able to activate the water tap – the immediate area currently has some depressions and staff will complete grading this week – should be complete by Friday
August 5, 2020 (listserv, from Jutta):
I'm guessing that the minimal park maintenance on the councillor's list has to do with city council's recent vote to save $152 million by the end of this year through "workforce restraints" -- which includes "seasonal and part time staff layoffs...and mandating vacation use." If this kind of budgeting is just the tip of the iceberg, the community may have to return to what we used to do in the 1990s -- working alongside the few remaining staff, and:
-- taking turns opening and closing the washrooms, and cleaning and stocking them, both in the field house and the rink house;
-- taking back charge of the sandpit maintenance, the cob cafe, playground maintenance and the ovens;
-- repairing broken picnic tables, setting up small arts events, monitoring the campfires, watering the trees during droughts,
-- collaborating in running the rink (if it ends up not being closed for a redesign) -- especially because indoor arenas may not be allowed to open at all this winter.
Picnic tables
some picnic tables upside down
About a week after the premier said that Toronto could go to Stage 3, some of the picnic tables that has been locked up in the hockey rink were distributed around the park. They filled up fast -- not everybody wants to sit and eat on the ground (blanket picnics). About 10 tables were not moved out, and after a week or so, some of them were flipped upside down on the rink surface. Their tops lay in puddles. A request to put those tables out went unanswered.
Sept.9, 2020
new boards on tables that were upside down
The tables have all been righted and the ones that were upside down in the puddles have had their boards replaced.