Water leak surfaces as problem at Robe-Ann

A puddle of water along Wood Street was only a drop in the bucket for the Greencastle Parks and Recreation Department.

Finding that puddle along the Wood Street side of Robe-Ann Park when it hadn’t rained for several days, Park Director Rod Weinschenk immediately knew there was a bigger problem at hand, he told the Park Board Thursday evening at City Hall.

Beneath the concrete pad at the splash park, he could actually hear water running due to a malfunctioning in-ground hydrant connecting the splash park and the pool.

Overall, the estimate is the loss of one million gallons of water because of the leak, Weinschenk said.

“That water was going somewhere,” he said, “and it finally surfaced Sunday.

“We probably fed the quarry,” he said of the old stone quarry pond on the opposite side of Wood Street.

To put that loss of water in perspective, Weinschenk said the city pool holds 480,000 gallons, so more than twice the capacity of the pool was lost through the leak.

On the October water bill alone, Weinschenk said the impact was 860,000 gallons.

“That’s going to be an expensive water bill,” he said.

Wayne Lewis, an ex-officio member of the Park Board, asked if Weinschenk had an estimate of the cost of the lost water.

After an adjustment by the city to void the sewage portion of that water usage, the park director said he’s “been told it could be as much as $10,000.”

“I don’t know how we missed it,” he said, “but there was no puddle there previously.”

He noted that board members might question why the water was not shut off when the pool was closed for the season back in the middle of August.

“I’ll remind you,” Weinschenk added, “that we kept the splash park open well into October.”

It was closed only after temperatures began to fall short of the 70s on a regular basis.

“So that’s the bad news for today,” Weinschenk said, adding that A. A. Huber came in Friday to saw into the concrete to begin the repair process.

There are probably seven such in-ground hydrants under the deck area, Weinschenk noted.

Meanwhile, the park director also had bad news to report concerning repeated vandalism at the Robe-Ann Park restrooms.

Apparently vandals think it’s fun to turn the faucets on full blast in the restroom, remove the handle so they can’t easily be shut off and walk away.

Because of multiple similar issues, the park restrooms will now only be open during daylight hours, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

New sinks with different faucets are also being installed to prevent a repeat of the vandalism.

“This is nothing I haven’t seen before,” Weinschenk said of other communities in which he’s worked. “It could be worse.

“I don’t like to see vandalism,” he stressed. “It’s a waste of time in cleaning up and a waste of our resources.”

The park director was asked if he had money left in his 2016 budget for vandalism. The cost of repairs will come out of the Park Maintenance Fund, he said.

Meanwhile, Weinschenk also got board approval to close the park gates that allow access at Wood and Tennessee streets for the season. The season’s last softball game was played Thursday evening, he said.

From Friday until next spring, the only gate that will be open will be at the main Bloomington Street access.

“It’s on the books that the park will be closed Oct. 31 to April 1,” Weinschenk reminded the board. “I don’t agree with that.

“Today (Thursday) we had 70-degree weather. We’re not going to tell people they can’t come in the park and go to the Emerald Palace on days like that.”

The main Robe-Ann Park gate will remain open until the first snow. It will close after that to avoid snow removal issues. Regardless, visitors can always walk into the park.

The entrance to Jaycee Park has already been closed, Weinschenk reported, due in part to some issues out there. However, fall fishermen can still park at the entrance and walk back in to wet a line.

In other business, the Park Board:

-- Gave Eagle Scout candidate Andrew Fajt permission to install bat houses next March at three locations along the People Pathways trail on the northeast side of town in an effort to eliminate mosquitoes and reduce the risk of insect-spread viruses. Fajt said a bat can eat 1,000 mosquitoes an hour or 8,000 a night. The 16-year-old has chosen bat house locations along Albin Pond Road, where the trail crosses Shadowlawn Avenue and at Deer Meadow Primary School. The structures, which can house 100 bats, will be two feet wide and three feet tall and be 17 feet off the ground. It was noted that three such bat houses already exist at Jaycee Park.

-- Gave permission to purchase playground equipment ($15,738) and order park signs ($1,300 each, including one for Maple Berry Park) for Micayla Cancilla Park on the park site behind Mama Nunz in Greencastle’s South End.

Park Board members Beva Miller, Tim Trigg, John Hennette and Cathy Merrell were all in attendance, along with ex-officio members David Taylor and Wayne Lewis, Park Director Weinschenk and Assistant Park Director Phil Cornelius.

The next regular meeting of the Greencastle Park Board is set for 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 1.