Parks Maintenance | City of Yorkton

The Parks Division is responsible for maintaining over 550 acres of parks, sports fields, natural areas, and other open spaces across the city. These diverse spaces include man-made structures and natural environments, and require a variety of different care and maintenance programs.

Park and Open Spaces Maintenance

This Parks Division stream is responsible for the care and maintenance of the various parks and green spaces throughout the city. This includes grass cutting, garbage and little collection, pathway maintenance, cemetery operations, playground inspections and repair, and other duties that keep our play areas safe for everyone to enjoy. In winter months, this stream maintains the outdoor rinks, skating pathway, walking trails, and also provide snow removal at some City facilities.

What You Can Expect

Mowing

Parks and green spaces are mowed and whipped on a rotational basis, factoring in weather, growing conditions, and maintenance and repairs to the grass cutting equipment. The standard rotation is one cut every two weeks, however some areas, such as destination parks and high traffic areas are cut more frequently.

Garbage Collection

Receptacles are emptied a minimum of once per week during the summer season.

Playground Inspections

Playground equipment is inspected monthly, with repairs completed as required.

Spray Parks

Spray parks are activated in late spring, and typically are on for the May long weekend. Spray parks remain on into the fall, pending weather conditions and are normally shut down after the September long weekend.

Pathway Maintenance

Paved pathways are inspected regularly, with repairs and crack sealing completed as required. Gravel and crusher dust pathways are agitated once per year, which help reduce weed growth and rejuvenate the pathway material.

Pathway Snow Clearing

Walking trails and pathways are typically cleared within 72 hours of snowfall, depending on the amount of snow, available equipment, and other priorities.

Outdoor Rink and Skating Pathway Maintenance

Outdoor rinks are made when daytime temperatures are consistently below minus 8 degrees. Once established, rinks and skating pathways are scraped and flooded regularly. Rinks will be closed when skating conditions are unsafe.

Sports Field Maintenance

The Sports Field stream provides the staff, equipment, and resources to maintain the nine baseball diamonds and four soccer pitches in Yorkton. Sports fields receive elevated services levels to support higher levels of play and competition. This maintenance is partially funded by rental fees that are charged to various users. In the winter months staff are shifted to the Kinsmen Arena.

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What You Can Expect

Mowing

Sport fields are mowed up to two times per week, depending on the field classification, weather and growing conditions, and scheduled rentals.

Pesticide Application

Weed control is completed twice per year, in early spring and late fall.

Aerating and Fertilization

Completed once per season.

Irrigation

Irrigation is provided on Class 1 ball diamonds, and on all soccer pitches at the Logan Green complex. Irrigation is provided to support strong and health turf grown on our premier sport fields.

Line Painting

The City completes painting on ball diamonds as needed throughout the season. User groups complete line painting on soccer fields.

Natural Areas

Natural park areas are lands set aside for the preservation of natural resources, remnant landscapes, open space, and visual aesthetics. These lands can consist of individual sites exhibiting a variety of prairie habitats, including grasslands, wetlands, and aspen parkland. In order to preserve the natural landscapes of these areas, they do not receive scheduled rotational grass maintenance, except for cutting and whipping along pathways.

Natural areas include Logan Green and the Ravine Ecological Preserve.

What You Can Expect

Mowing

Grass cutting and whipping is competed to maintain areas adjacent to paved or hard surface pathways. Grass pathways are mowed regular to allow for ease of travel.

Garbage Collection

Garbage receptacles are emptied once per week during the summer months. In winter, garbage is collected every two weeks.

Snow Clearing

Snow clearing is provided on the Logan Green pathway system. The paved portion is cleared within 72 hours of snowfall, depending on the amount of snow, equipment availability, and other priorities. The gravel pathways along Logan Green will be cleared after all paved pathways in the city have been addressed.

Pest and Weed Control

The City is committed to using the least toxic control methods wherever possible to control weeds and pests. The Parks Division maintains the health of sports fields and green spaces to make these areas more resistant to weeds, and to reduce the need for pesticides. Established cultural turf practices include mowing, fertilizing, aerating, and top dressing are used to improve the conditions of turf areas.

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What You Can Expect

Pesticides Applied

Select medians, sidewalks, and parking lots will be sprayed to control weeds. Sports fields, including designated ball diamonds and soccer fields are also sprayed to maintain strong and healthy turf.

Pesticides Not Applied

The City does not spray for weeds around playgrounds, in neighbourhood parks, or around residential areas.

Tree Maintenance

Care and maintenance of City-owned trees located on boulevards, centre medians, and in neighbourhood parks is the responsibility of the Urban Forestry stream.

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