Dufferin Grove Park outdoor furniture, 2002 to 2010.

2002

Interview with Parks supervisor Mike Hindle: he explained that there is only enough funding to provide staff for one hour a week litter-picking, three visits a week from a garbage truck, ten grass cuts a year, 5 days of leaf cleanup in the fall, and five days total of miscellaneous maintenance.

He said that there is no budget for any regular inspection of the condition of paths, picnic tables, and benches. There is no budget for picnic table repair or path maintenance.

2004

From the Newsletter August 2004

HELP FOR THE PARK: SUNDAY AUGUST 15: THE GREAT PICNIC TABLE PAINTING

The problem is, there is no (zero) money in the Toronto parks budget for fixing and painting park furniture. There’s not even anyone who keeps track of which tables or benches need care.  But when paint starts to peel off, the wood rots faster, so maintenance is important. Park friend Michelle Webb organized a wonderfully successful painting day, with pizza at the oven. Suchada Promchiri donated brushes, the Parks Department donated paint, and whole families came to paint. They painted 13 tables, 3 benches, and 2 chairs. (Wow!) Some little kids painted in their underwear and washed their green-daubed bodies at the sand pit afterwards. The tables will last much longer now.

2006

http://dufferinpark.ca/problems/wiki/wiki.php?n=Problems2006.ParkFurnitureRepair:

Request to Tino DeCastro, Recreation supervisor, April 27, 2006

Tino, here is the park bench and picnic table need-of-repair inventory: The park has:

Benches: 49

Picnic Tables: 45

All are heavily used. The number needing serious repair are (see examples below)-

Benches =18
Tables = 25

Could you ask maintenance to give us an idea of repair timing? If there is no budget, please let us know so we can put out a call for another community maintenance bee.

Follow-up e-mail from Jutta Mason, May 1, 2006

Tino, the park maintenance crew did a lot of work on the tables and benches last Friday. Please let them know we appreciate their quick response to this request.

Response from Recreation supervisor Tino DeCastro, May 2, 2006

The Parks staff have not finished and will be doing more, but we did take care of the worst ones first.

Update from Jutta Mason, July 30, 2006

There are now 56 benches in the park (more than before), of which 8 need new slats.

There are 38 picnic tables, of which one is in bad shape. 7 picnic tables have not been returned from repair. There is often a lineup for picnic tables, so the staff keep a flat cart near the rink house, that people can use to move tables from the oven area (and back again).

2007

Picnic table count, August 2007

Picnic Tables:

9 adjacent to the Wood Oven
1 directly west of wood oven near dufferin (it has a hole in the bench)
2 in the gully; one near the new trees, one further south
2 next to campfire spots (one each)
2 at the fieldhouse
1 at east end of soccer field
2 at 'picnic area' south of nettle garden
1 directly east of playground
3 just north of the cob
3 south-east of the wadding pool
2 in the south end of the park, in the middle
2 slightly spaced apart south of the main campfire
2 south of the wood oven, past the valley path (these will be transfered to the wood oven)
That's 32 picnic tables.

2008

Re: Park Furniture, April 21, 2008:

We have 42 picnic tables, of which 6 are sort of swaying or tilting, and 2 have some structural damage, a brace would help, 14 need paint jobs. Mostly in okay shape.

We have 11 wooden benches with no backs (locker room benches from a CRC reno), of which 8 need paint badly.

We have 34 benches with fixed/ concrete sides, of which 3 are swaying/ tilting, 2 are missing slats.

We have 8 wood benches with metal frames (Piper benches) of which 2 need paint and 2 need slats fixing.

2009

The count, as of April 10, 2009.

Picnic Tables - 29

Benches
concrete ends with wooden slats - 20
Permanent - 5 (i.e. two around a tree plus three set in cement)

Loose benches
with back (Piper) - 9
without(locker room) - 13

Playground Benches
concrete - 2
permanent (set in cement) - 5

Park Furniture 2010

needs wood

detail

detail

needs paint

whole bench part missing

bench needs a slat and PAINT

From Jutta Mason to Recreation supervisor Dave Hains, May 5 2010

As you can see from this link http://celos.ca/wiki/wiki.php?n=StateOfGoodRepair.ParkFurniture2002To2010, the supply of picnic tables at Dufferin grove has fluctuated from a high of 45 tables to a low of 29 right now (program staff counted last week). Many of those 29 need repair, the sooner the better.

Michelle Webb has held a picnic table painting day for some years. She says she can do it again this weekend (weather permitting). Could you ask Parks to supply the paint and brushes for this weekend, as they have done in other years?

What are the plans for replacing rotting or broken slats (on both the tables and the benches)? If there are no plans, could Parks pay for the wood, so that park users could join with program staff and CELOS to do the repairs?

(Note that last Sunday there were over 500 people in the park in the afternoon. Taking the tables downtown for repair won't work if they don't come back for two months -- at least most of the broken park furniture is still available for sitting).