As the weather gets warmer, city workers are getting London's outdoor sports facilities ready. But they are asking athletes to be patient.
London has several grass soccer and baseball fields, as well as the artificial turf soccer fields at the City Wide Sports Complex.
"The artificial turf soccer fields don't require much maintenance," says Mike Vanderluin, London's supervisor of Parks and Recreation Allocations and Sport Services. "After the snow melts we just have to rake them in order to remove crumbs that settles into the turf over the course of the winter."
As for grass fields around the city, Vandertuin says they take more time to prepare.
"The grass fields are very, very wet. We encourage people that if we do get a few warm days, know that does not mean the fields are ready right away," says Vandertuin.
The city is targeting May 4 as an opening date for grass fields.
"The process that we use with baseball diamonds is throughout the month of April. We do inspections on all the fields to see if the snow is gone, what kind of condition they're in, and then decide when they might be able to open," says Vandertuin. "During the inspection period we break and lift up the diamonds to analyse them and see if they need more infield dirt."
Annually, the City spends $75,000- $100,000 on spring clean-up, which includes laying lines and sand, grass maintenance, and repairing flood and frost damage from the winter.
Premiere fields around the city will get first look, then neighbourhood parks and other sports fields to follow.
**This story was written by Alec Ross, a student in the Broadcast Journalism program at Fanshawe College. Alec is currently performing an internship with BlackburnNews.com
