City’s mowing budget doesn’t cut it: Wyatt

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This article was published 08/06/2023 (905 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg will study the cost of setting a new standard to mow city parks and boulevards.

On Thursday, Coun. Russ Wyatt sparked the debate by asking city staff to report on how much it would cost to cut grass at city-owned parks and boulevards every six days throughout May and June, when he said grass tends to grow most quickly.

The city currently mows such areas every 10 to 14 days.

“What’s frustrating for residents is that they go and they cut their grass and look after their yards, and some of them literally live across the street from a city park and they look out and they see a sea of dandelions going to seed and the city’s not cutting their grass… We enforce bylaws on residents to cut their grass or we will send out a bylaw officer to fine you and yet here is the City of Winnipeg not cutting their own grass (enough),” he said.

The councillor said the issue triggered an onslaught of complaints to his office this spring, including concerns tall grass was interfering in the line-painting and creating a poor surface for soccer games.

“You have little guys trying to kick a ball when the grass is about eight inches high and it’s frustrating,” said Wyatt.

The motion bluntly deems the look of boulevards and parks as “deplorable” during those months and describes the current length of the mowing cycle as an underfunded “service failure.”

The motion was debated at Thursday’s public works committee but was altered following staff feedback about the call to switch to the much quicker mowing cycle. Instead, the committee ordered a staff report with recommendations for a parks and boulevard lawn maintenance service level policy to maintain “adequate” standards and a cost estimate to implement it.

During the meeting, the city’s public works director said multiple rainstorms and heat can make it difficult for the city to keep up with mowing during May and June.

“Even if you doubled (the frequency) up, it might not be quick enough because it’s grown at four days, not six days … And we have not seen any increase to our maintenance funding to support growth (in city spaces that need to be moved),” said Jim Berezowsky.

The director said the city lacks the staff and equipment to speed up mowing that much at this point.

Wyatt said he still expects the revised motion to reduce complaints and produce an “acceptable” service standard.

Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of council’s public works committee, said she is also concerned the maintenance of parks and boulevards is underfunded.

“We added the whole of Waverley West… and we’ve not increased the budget … There’s only so many staff to cover all of these (additional) acres,” said Lukes. “I’m hoping in the four-year budget process that we will see an increase in funding.”

The city’s 2023 budget included about $11 million for the mowing, which appears to have varied little since 2020.

Rather than push for a six-day mowing cycle for two months of the year, Lukes said she prefers letting city staff offer a variety of frequency options for consideration in the next budget process. She said that’s needed to determine the best value for the city amid other budget priorities.

“It all boils down to cost. If the budget working group has some options to decide on, they can weigh that out with all the other things. People want spray pads and pools and the list goes on … We have to find that balance and that’s the challenge,” said Lukes.

In an email, city spokesman Kalen Qually said the city’s 311 service received 747 mowing requests throughout 2022 and 173 in 2023 so far.

The public works committee did not set an exact due date for the report to be completed.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga