I am a regular user of the Lacombe Lake Dog Park. I've watched things evolve over the last few years that really leave me to scratch my head and wonder just who makes all the decisions in regard to the park.
I was in favour of the fence around the park and feel it was money well spent. As for other projects, I cannot figure out what they were thinking allowing the housing development so close to the park with their balconies literally hanging over the park instead of a buffer zone.
Then they spent I don’t know how much this summer building swale along the fence line and cutting across the park. This was in an effort to drain the standing water in a small area. Now instead of putting a ditch with pipe and drain rock leading to the lake they built this swale with grass. As I predicted, every time there is a freeze-thaw cycle the whole area turns into a mucky mess making it hard to access the park.
The first time it snowed and melted, the grass cutters felt it was a great time to do their final cut of the season. They drove through the ditch with their mowers and dug in and left the area damaged.
The park has no real grass anymore. Instead of roping off one area at a time and aerating and seeding, we are left mud every cycle. The entrance to the park from the muddy parking lot was never seeded or sodded.
Just think that money could have been better spent.
Al Fraser, St. Albert
