I see from last night’s (June 5) meeting that the parks’ mowing schedule will be investigated.It is obvious that more frequent mowing is required during the cool spring weather. And as was said in the paper by Councillor Laidlaw, it may require more money to do so.
May I make a suggestion? One way to decrease the extra costs would be to reassess our present mowing practices from the point of view of where and
how much.I walk the Silver Creek trail twice a day with my dog. I can show you countless places that are mowed too close to the river, too far into the naturalized areas and patches where it just seems to be ridiculous to be mowing at all. To me this has always been a colossal waste of time and money. Not to mention contrary to our naturalization policies.I have discussed the over mowing issues many times with Jay Kivell (when Jay was still around and Parks were responsible for mowing). Now, I don’t know who is responsible or what department it falls under. But with new people in charge perhaps a change can be made.
I suspect that mowing where it is not required is an issue all over the city and the savings could be substantial. I would be more than willing to take you, or any one else for that matter, for an informative walk beside the portion of the river that I am familiar with. OA