As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City of Airdrie is considering reduced funding and staffing for its parks maintenance program this summer.
At an Airdrie City council meeting April 20, Archie Lang, operations manager for Parks and Public Works, outlined the impact coronavirus-related closures will have on City-operated parks, outdoor recreational facilities, green spaces and summer maintenance this year.
"As a result of the pandemic, the parks department has had to reassess the delivery and level of service that is reasonable, and the financial impacts thereof, due to the current anticipated public health restrictions," he said. "Given the physical distancing requirements, equipment cleaning protocols and the training resources available, it is not feasible to deliver the originally anticipated scale of summer staff hiring."
He said his department is considering staffing, program and maintenance reductions that would trim its budget by between $300,000 and $1 million this year. Lang provided three hypothetical scenarios for council to consider, with the department recommending the second option – a reduced level of maintenance and roughly half the department’s usual number of summer staff.
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"It is currently estimated that approximately 50 summer staff would be returning students and this would result in significantly reduced orientation and training requirements," Lang said. "Subject to an appropriate assessment, this could also be an opportunity to redeploy some existing City staff to the summer parks program."
Other hypotheticals included hiring the same number of summer staff as previous years, but reducing maintenance levels, or not hiring any staff this summer, instead relying on the department’s 23 permanent employees.
"Option C would result in savings of about $1 million, due to the elimination of any summer student hiring, but would also result in severe impacts to our service levels," Lang said. "It is obviously not an option we are recommending."
As part of the preferred option, Lang said two programs that would be eliminated this year include the City’s tree-planting and downtown flower-hanging programs, which would result in savings of more than $160,000.
Under Airdrie’s ongoing State of Local Emergency, the City-operated spray park, skate park, playgrounds and multi-use courts are currently closed, as well as outdoor recreational areas and sports fields.
"It is expected the current public health limitations will continue to impact these facilities for a significant portion of the summer, if not the entire summer," Lang said, adding the closure of the spray park this year would save roughly $57,000.
The bulk of savings, however, would come from staffing reductions, he said, resulting in budgetary reductions of about $306,000.
"Fifty summer staff would be returning, and maybe a dozen would be redeployed from Genesis Place maintenance staff," he said. "Should these facilities open sooner, there would be additional staffing and resource requirements. We would have to do a late hire and hopefully we would have a good response."
With fewer workers employed this summer, other service-level reductions under consideration include decreasing the frequency of garbage bin-emptying at public parks and reduced mowing, irrigation and weed control on sports fields and general parklands. According to Lang, Airdrie's main sports fields would be irrigated just once a week and mowed every two weeks, while pest control would be done "only as absolutely required."
"We would still have some irrigation on the major sports fields, because we do not want to lose any grass and have to rejuvenate the fields," he said.
Council accepted the report for information, and will make a decision future meeting.
Scott Strasser, AirdrieToday.com
Follow me on Twitter @scottstrasser19
