Over the next few days and definitely by the weekend, the sound that says summer will be heard across Prince George.
It's not the sound of birds chirping.
It's not the sound of
mosquitoes buzzing.
Nope.
It's the roar of the lawnmower.
And forget the exhaust smell of the gas mower, it's the sweet smell of freshly-mowed grass that lingers.
The avid green thumb will be out to trim their lawn every five to seven days from now through September. The less enthusiastic homeowner will push it to 10 days and the folks that hate doing yard work will wait two weeks before grudgingly tackling the chore.
Waiting any longer and you've got a mess with grass grown high and unkempt. The yard looks neglected and it makes the home look
abandoned.
Better get used to that sight because that's what most city parks will look like this summer.
After hacking the parks budget by $125,000 earlier this year - the equivalent of two full-time positions - and reducing the number of summer parks work crews from three to one, city council decided this week to set up a second mobile crew by stealing from the seasonal staff hired to look after boulevards and sports fields.
It's the classic case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Good call to let our sports fields languish, just in time for Prince George to host baseball teams from across the country at the 2012
Senior Men's Championship in August.
As a "high priority park," Citizen Field will be fine but the other sports fields around the city for baseball and softball, as well as
soccer, won't get the attention they usually
receive each summer.
Meanwhile, dandelions will grow to seed and the grass will be up to most people's knees along boulevards and in smaller neighbourhood parks before a city crew will get there to deal with it.
According to the city's parks maintenance schedule, the two crews will look after high priority areas every 10 working days and won't get to medium priority areas, like neighbourhood parks, for 20 to 23 working days. Everything else will be serviced as required or when time permits, a polite way of saying "never, unless enough people kick up a big enough fuss."
This option is marginally better than the one city council rejected, where high priority parks would have only been serviced once every three weeks and medium-priority areas would have been visited once every five to six weeks.
Another option city council dismissed would have seen a special events trade assistant join a crew with the urban forestry person, who looks after the trees at civic facilities and tends to weddings in Rainbow Park and special events like Canada Day in Fort George Park.
Coun. Brian Skakun was the only council member to vote against this cut to parks service.
"I think we're going backwards," he said. "Community beautification, community pride is taking a hit no matter what option we approve here. We can afford to spend millions of dollars on the Canada Winter Games but we can't
afford to maintain our parks."
Couldn't have said it better ourselves.
Well-maintained green spaces during the summer months speak volumes to tourists and visitors, whether they're passing through, staying a few days to visit friends and family or coming to play in a national baseball tournament.
They tell everyone - visitors and residents alike - that this is a healthy community that takes pride in itself and welcomes everyone.
Poorly maintained public spaces also speak loud and clear about the health and vibrancy of the community.
The message that stems from overgrown sports fields and boulevards is of a community in decline, that no longer has the resources to even mow the grass in a timely fashion.
Homeowners are always infuriated at the one or two residents on their street that don't take the time to upkeep their property during the summer. It makes the whole neighbourhood look bad.
This time, city council is going to make all of us look bad with this short-sighted decision, made less than two weeks after the City of Prince George won an environmental design award for the beautiful gardens at the junction of Highways 16 and 97.
Cut the grass, mayor and council.
Cut the budget elsewhere.
-- Managing editor Neil Godbout