Shine up the cleats tonight - the sports fields are open.
Jason Chernoff, the city’s parks and recreation supervisor, reports that all the fields are now open, with a few minor exceptions.
At the SASCU Sports Fields at Little Mountain, staff will be booking fields one and three, but not two. Field 2 had a late fall season so needs time to regenerate.
At the Safeway fields behind the new school board office, the upper section will be open but not the lower, which is still pooling water.
At Blackburn Park, Walters’ Field 1 will be open, but the new field is not, nor are the ball diamonds.
The Jackson fields at the Jackson campus of Salmon Arm Secondary are open.
The ball diamonds at Canoe are open, just as they are at Klahani Park in South Canoe.
Chernoff cautions: “The parks department is way behind on field maintenance and it’s not up to my standard of care for this time of year.”
He said it is getting late in the season because of all the rain so he thought it was necessary to allow people to use them.
“We might be opening them a little too soon, but that’s the way it goes.”
Staff will be working hard at maintenance during the daytime once they can get equipment on the fields.
“We’ll be aerating, thatching, seeding and top dressing.”
Chernoff’s only suggestion to users at this point is, “if standing water is on the field, please stay off.”