Water timers installed at Grant Bark Park

 Grant Bark Park  5 Responses »
Aug 202009
 
timer_1

The timer is installed at ground level at the central source.

Thanks to the CPD plumbing department, the central water at Grant Bark Park is now running off a mechanical timer. The timer was installed to address the longstanding ‘issue’ of the water hydrant being left on 24/7 to run the improvised fountain at the center of the park. It works beautifully.

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Vigoro mechanical timer

The water flow is controlled by a simple egg-timer mechanism, and it can be set to shut off water flow after 15 minutes to 2 hours. The connections look to be leak-free, so there should never be a need to shut water off at the source. (There are two wrenches for the source stored in the lockbox).

Please try to use this timer, and to educate others how to use it: you want your dogs to play in a water fountain, you turn the dial, and you can leave the park without worry or guilt!

The flow timer is plastic, and we don’t know how long it will last in the weather, or whether it will break due to heavy or clumsy use. That’s fine – they are cheap ($14.77 at Home Depot), and if over time the mechanical timer works well as a way to regulate the water from the central source, the Dog PAC will budget to replace them periodically as necessary. If you see that it’s broken – contact us!

We’ve also installed a timer at the water fountain spigot. The hose is connected to a sprinkler now, but we imagine that long term the hose may just be left unattached for filling up water bowls (and, if we get our act together, for filling up wading pools).

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Timer installed at the faucet off the drinking fountain

 Posted by on August 20, 2009

Drains above ground?

 Grant Bark Park, News  2 Responses »
Aug 182009
 

Wow, take a look at the drain installation at the Grant Bark Park:

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The drain entrance is above the surrounding asphalt!

Look at the front of that drain – there is an obvious lip that extends above the surface of the surrounding asphalt, allowing water to pool and accumulate debris, bacteria, and parasites.

And it’s even worse at the Coliseum Park DFA:

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The drain is surrounded by a depression that holds water!

Is this shoddy work, or what (sure, it could be ‘natural settling of the asphalt’)?

There’s already been a report of someone suspecting that their dog acquired Giardia from nosing around the drain at the Grant Bark Park.  Now, I’ve always heard that rabbit droppings (yum!) were the more serious threat for Giardia, but whatever.

These are defects that shouldn’t be allowed to persist.  Here’s the thing – the issue with the Coliseum Park DFA drains was reported to the Chicago Park District over two years ago (by email, dated 5.1.07).  Nothing has been done since.

So, what do we do?  As far as I can tell, repairing these defects is clearly an obligation of the Chicago Park District under the terms of the agreement that they make with the community groups managing the ‘DFA’s.  See here, ‘Maintenance of Capital Projects’ including ‘sewer repair’ and ‘asphalt replacement’.  Perhaps the solution is simply to keep bringing this to their attention, every week, every month, until it gets done?

That takes some effort. And it would help if we could log our requests with the CPD, so that everyone could keep track of the status of the issues that have been raised.

Consider this the first entry in that ‘log’ – the Coliseum Park DFA drain defect was raised again with Janis Taylor of the CPD on Friday 8.14.09 (photographs emailed 8.17.09).  She was notified of the Bark Park drain defect by email, 8.18.09.

Guidelines

 News  No Responses »
Aug 142009
 

The Chicago Park District guidelines for DFA committees, including the South Loop Dog PAC, are explicitly laid out in the CPD DFA guidelines document.  A copy of the  document, dated 4.22.2008, has been uploaded to the website and it is available for download.  The new guidelines page outlines the responsibilities of the Dog PAC with respect to maintenance of the Grant Bark Park and the Coliseum Park DFA.   It’s up to us, folks!

 Posted by on August 14, 2009