Jeff Humphrey, Media Content Coordinator, 509.625.6308
Monday, June 25, 2018 at 3:22 p.m.
There’s lots of water to enjoy in Liberty Park but lately, not enough of it has ended up on the grass.
More than half of Liberty’s sprinklers are not working after construction crews at a project designed to protect the Spokane River inadvertently dug up the lines that feed the park’s irrigation system.
So now park employees are using other watering methods to keep the grass alive until the lines can be repaired.
“We’re fairly confident the grass is going to come back. It’s in a dormant stage as this point and I think citizens of the neighborhood and community are going to see continuous improvement over the summer,” predicted Leroy Eadie, Director of Spokane Parks & Recreation.
The contractor tried to repair the broken lines last winter but wasn’t successful. The full extent of the problem only became apparent recently. As a result, there was a delay getting the water to where it’s needed.
“My wish would have been through a little bit better coordination in the beginning between the contractor, between parks and recreation and engineering services, I think we could have got out here and got the system up and running in a temporary way, the way we have it today, a little bit sooner and we would have seen less of an impact on that grass,” lamented Eadie.
The irrigation system was dug up and damaged in multiple locations. Like an old string of Christmas lights, if one pipe is broken none of the other lines can be pressurized.
So now, Parks and Rec crews are following a plan to rehabilitate the grass and water the trees through the hottest part of our summer. As part of the recovery effort, watering will happen a lot more often and sometimes in the afternoon.
“We know we can do better for the neighborhood and regardless of who’s fault it is, our staff is getting out here. We’re really focused on getting this as green as we can, as fast as we can for the citizens, and that’s what we owe the neighborhood. A nice green park that they can enjoy, and that’s our goal,” said Eadie.
