The City of Estevan’s parks division has been busy maintaining the parks throughout the community during the summer months.
Parks manager Rod March said their mandate has been to do more with less money this year. They had less manpower this year, but they have been able to maintain the parks and other properties.
“What I’ve done is switched a bit to make things easier to maintain, by putting rocks in the shrub gardens, and that sort of thing, to cut down on the number of weeds, because that’s always a complaint,” said March.
New fences have been installed at the Pleasantdale Softball Diamonds, and changes were made to the parking lot at Lynne Prime Park.
“We’re focused on enhancing what we have, but with no big-ticket items because of … our financial situation, we’re just trying to be fiscally responsible,” said March.
Flowers have been planted in the community as well.
The heat and the dry weather haven’t caused too many problems, since many of their parks are well-irrigated.
“They’ve been held to a really high standard this year, and we’ve had lots of compliments on them,” said March. “I have to hand it to our parks foreman and the summer students and everyone else. They’ve done an excellent job.”
The heat did cut down on the number of mosquitoes this summer, but it has now resulted in a surge in the number of yellow jackets, and March said they are multiplying quickly.
The city did receive support on a couple of projects, which allowed them to proceed. One is a pathway that will be constructed from Estevan Comprehensive School to King Street. It is a legacy project through last year’s Saskatchewan Summer Games.
The other was on the island at the intersection of King Street and Kohaly Avenue. The city received a donation of bricks from a citizen, and the bricks were installed in a similar pattern to the medians on Souris Avenue North.
It did cost money to install them, but since the city received the bricks for free, it made sense to place them in that location.
New waste bins are being installed at various parks and along pathways in the community, replacing the steel garbage cans that have been around the community for years.
“We don’t have them all out yet, but as we transition from the steel barrels to the plastic ones, we’ve received a lot of good comments,” said March.
Fifty are out in the community already, and another 50 are ready to be installed once those steel drums are ready to be replaced.
The new plastic bins feature artwork created by local children in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday.
March also signed the city up for the Communities in Bloom competition. Since this was Estevan’s first year, the city was entered in the novice division, and March said the goal was to get Estevan’s name into the program, which allows him to apply for grants.
The city might move up to the evaluated friends category next year, in which other communities would come to Estevan to look at the community’s amenities.
“There’s so many things that I want to do in the city first,” said March. “We’re working on getting environmental programs into place. Our website needs to be updated.”
The city staff will continue to maintain its parks prior to the first snowfall. They’ll make sure the grass is cut in the 16 hectares of parks in city limits. And they won’t have access to as much manpower, since the summer students are finishing their employment.
He will also be doing some work in front of the cemetery.
There might not have been many big projects this year, but March said their emphasis was making the city a little neater while becoming more efficient at what they’re doing, and March believes they succeeded.
