A maintenance plan has been recommended for the Finlayson Park sports fields that would set the district back approximately $9,000 annually.
Earlier this summer, Sicamous resident Craig Mitchell expressed his concerns for the condition of the fields to Sicamous council. A personal fitness instructor who uses the park regularly, Mitchell told council that the condition of the fields were bumpy and, in some areas contained holes and, that overall, use of the fields posed a risk of injury.
In July, council received a report from Dale Shelby of Terrason Environment Inc., who assessed the field and determined that overall, it’s in reasonable shape. Compaction, he writes, is the biggest issue for the playing field areas.
“This causes surface water pooling during heavy rains, and restricted root growth,” writes Shelby.
The solution proposed is a regular maintenance program of topdressing with sand, deep-tine aeration, over-seeding and sweeping with heavy-duty drag mats that would work the sand into aeration holes as well as filling minor irregularities. This program was estimated to cost $1,000 per acre.
In August, following another appearance by Mitchell in council chambers, he, district operations manager Randy Hand, Mayor Darrell Trouton and district administrator Heidi Frank walked the field, with Mitchell pointing out a number of depressions in the field that were a concern.
Hand says those spots have since been filled in with soil and topped with grass seed. And while the district does do some maintenance of Finlayson, Hand says the public works department doesn’t currently have no funding to increase service levels in the park.
“Ten-thousand dollars is a bit of a hit,” says Hand. “If this is something residents feel they want, it could be brought forward at budget.”
Hand says the district does not have the equipment required to do the work suggested in the report, and that the work would have to be contracted out.