Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Every summer for the last four years, Rodney Callahan has been asking the city to move its sprinklers away from his fence and woodpile and yet the sprinkling persists.

"We've been having the same problem every year and we call them and they say, 'Oh, we'll send someone over to move it,' and then a few weeks later it's back there again spraying our fence," said Callahan, who has been living in his Bromley Drive home for four years.

"I just put new stain on the fence and my firewood is there and it's on my property," he said. "All they have to do is, when they set the sprinklers up, pull them back an extra three or four feet and then water wouldn't hit it. That's all that needs to be done. It's not like it's impossible to avoid."

The sprinklers are set up on a piece of green space on Old Airport Road. Callahan said he's concerned that the constant water will cause his four-year-old fence to rot and his firewood, which he uses to heat his home in the winter, to become waterlogged.

City sprinklers and public green spaces are the responsibility of the city's Department of Community Services, said deputy mayor Mark Heyck, spokesperson for the city while Mayor Gord Van Tighem is out of the office. Usually lawn maintenance is done by summer students, he said.

"I suppose it's just at a managerial level, it's just a matter of reminding the staff or the summer students or whoever is doing it that that needs to be taken into consideration."

Heyck said he would address the issue with the rest of council.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.