By Staff
May 14th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
It was on again off again for a week – then they just gave up and said Closed until further notice.
The weather is playing havoc with the folks over at the Parks and Recreation department.
Grass sports fields are closed due to unsafe conditions. Public safety trumps everything.
No ball playing on this diamond. This is basically the situation across the city – except where there is artificial turf.
In a media release the city said: “Due to the amount of rain the City has had over the past few weeks, all natural turf-grass playing fields will be closed until further notice.
Between April 1 and May 13, 226 mm of rain has fallen in Burlington. The average monthly rainfall for April and May combined is 150.3 mm.
The soggy conditions of the fields are a threat to player safety and use of the fields will cause damage to the turf resulting in significant repairs and lengthy field closures. Not all grass fields have been mowed because site conditions are too soft. Mowers have become stuck resulting in the need for costly repairs of the tracks left behind which also pose a risk to player safety.
The field conditions are terrible – a lot of damage done.
Murray Cameron, Manager of Park Operations explains it this way: “We’ve had much more rain than normal this spring, so our fields just haven’t had a chance to drain. They will need several days of drying conditions for the ground to become firm enough to support a mower and dozens of people using the area, so please stay off the fields until further notice, even if we get one or two warm sunny days.
“Repairs of fields are costly and time-consuming and injuries are not how anyone wants to start the season.”
