Friends of Dufferin Grove Park: Park Maintenance

Park Maintenance Page

Selection

Maintenance Issues Page: Update May 17, 2004: The good news is that since our new park supervisor Brian Green assigned Joe Eschweiler to picking litter more often than the last crew, the park is noticeably cleaner. ... The bad news is that the supervisor says he has neither compost, nor fence posts, to help us with the park gardens. Nor could he get us any grass seed ... Read more >>

Related features:

Dufferin Grove Rink Problems: see Sports In the Park

posted June 1, 2004

There are several signs of problems at the Dufferin Park Rink, but we can't seem to get the City to look at it seriously. Check the Sports page for latest updates. Read more >>

Information

Please Complain

posted July 29, 2004

If you find a picnic table that’s wobbly or a mess of trash in the gardens or a nail sticking up in the playground, please tell the park staff (you’ll usually find them at the playground or near the ovens). They want to keep things in good order and everyone’s eyes can help. The same goes for destructive or scary behaviour. If it happens at night, leave a message on the park phone at 416 392-0913 and the staff or park friends will pay extra attention to that spot on the following nights. The city can and will issue trespass letters to people who make trouble in the park, prohibiting those folks from returning until they’ve cleaned up their act.

Features

Our only path?

The main throughfare through our park is not wheelchair accessible

Maintenance Issues at the Park

Is Park Maintenance Pulling Out of Its Nosedive?

From the June 2004 Newsletter

posted June 5, 2004

At the beginning of May, we were tickled to report that things were looking up for park maintenance: we got a half-time worker assigned to the park to pick litter and keep things repaired. It even looked like we might get a fence for the new kitchen garden, although the parks department was out of fence posts for the time being. But we heard they were getting some.

During May this didn’t work out so well. By June 1 the fence had not materialized, neither had grass seed to fill in all those bald patches all over the park. Neither had the gaps in the playground fence been fixed. The sand in the playground was still unharrowed and hard, and there were still deep hollows at the bottom of the slide and under the swings (if anybody falls, they really get a jolt). The unpaved dirt track that runs through the park for all those hundreds and hundreds of park users to walk along/push strollers/ride bikes or wheelchairs - was still eroded in places and rutted and just as bumpy as last year (no grader had smoothed it yet). The crooked picnic tables and the benches that were missing slats from last year had stayed exactly that way. The grass was long in places, short in others, and in distress in the centre of the soccer field (already), with holes where the irrigation outlets were.

Our park was not a complete orphan. Park maintenance staff person (and former scout-master) Joe Eschweiler kept picking up the trash, so the park was still cleaner than we’re used to from other years. Joe also took a run at the ruts in the Sri Lankan’s grass "overball" court (overball is a variation of volleyball) beside the basketball court. He used a lawnmower and a weed-whipper in an ingenious way to even out the ground - and it worked, so hopefully there will be no more twisted ankles for a while. Also, our request for compost and wood chips for the garden volunteers turned up a couple of wheelbarrow-loads of each. We got the gift of a little round table and two stools, cast-offs from Riverdale Farm, and promises of more from a park furniture dump near there. That would be lovely.

But you can’t run a park only on promises. On June 2, Roman (the park maintenance foreman) came and walked all around the park to make a to-do list. He said that, even though his crew are overwhelmed with city parks grass-cutting, we’ll see some action in the next days and weeks. By the next day the playground fence had been fixed and a couple of broken tables removed (and one repaired). So let’s see how this next round of promises work out. Maybe the Parks maintenance crew will follow through.

Read more on the Maintenance Issues Page >>

Vandalism, how we deal with it

posted April 25, 2004

Vandalism: All parks are troubled by vandalism, and when we built our park outdoor ovens we had to get practical about dealing with it. The things that we found out about protecting the ovens will also work for other kinds of park vandalism. Here are the rules of vandalism that we go by: Watch new structures more closely; Repair vandalism (including graffiti) right away; Give the vandals a few very easy targets; Supply alternative targets; Let the oven (or any other important park structure) make friends for itself; Take vandals to court if they're caught; If park staff, police, or the courts don't take vandalism seriously, community follow-up can help. Read more >>

Stories

Maintenance Stories from our newsletters

Maintenance Stories: [Sept.2001] Vandalism in the park: This has been another year of very little vandalism in the park, with one exception – the area by the wading pool and the playground. The bulletin board was knocked over, the checker table trampled, the locks on the rain shelter benches twisted and broken, and there was lots of broken glass. (Much of the damage was repaired by playground volunteer Fidel Perez with the help of the summer staff.) Vandalism in the park; Salt on the sidewalks; Old benches into new: The "Legacy in our Neighbourhood" project; Park fix-it inventory; Mayor David Miller’s "Clean Sweep Challenge Week" Read more >>