Sprinklers run despite recent rain, councillor notes

By Ian MacKay

ROSETOWN – Recreation and parks workers have "been busy all over," shutting down and opening buildings due to the change in seasons, recreation director Kelli Emmons told councillors last week.

The recent rain prompted leaks at a few locations, including at the gun range in the basement of the swimming pool, Emmons said during the May 19 regular meeting.

"We think we've figured out where it's coming from, though," after staff looked for the cause during the rain, she said.

"It's coming in in the electrical conduit, we believe, from underneath the cement pad" at the front entrance, she said. "We've got to pull out the cement pad, which we were going to replace, anyway, so we're going to be able to at least see what's going on."

Work to replace the hot tub was finished, she expected staff would paint it late last week and it's to be inspected this week.

Work there, which included installing three new pumps, was "well ahead of schedule" and Emmons expected the pool to open before the end of May.

After talking with the pool manager, "We are worried what staffing will look like in a year or two . . . as we do not have a large number of younger lifeguards," she said in a written report.

She wasn't sure when repairs planned for the front entrance of the AGT Centre would occur, possibly in August, because she and public works superintendent Bob Bors intended to co-ordinate its concrete work with sidewalk installation, she said during the meeting.

"A programming issue with the timer" is the likely reason that some park sprinklers were going, Amanda Bors, the acting chief administrator, told councillor Jan Coffey-Olson. Coffey-Olson wondered after she saw them running as she went to the meeting.

"I thought, 'That's probably not necessary,' " she said after 42.6 millimetres of rain fell at the airport between May 14 and 18, inclusive.

"They're supposed to come on at 10 or 11 at night," Emmons said, suggesting that "the time on the timer must be not set correctly." They're set to run at certain times, whether or not parks have received recent rainfall, she explained.