BRING back the PARK CARETAKERS
Oldtown News
Vancouver, BC
BRING back the PARK CARETAKERS
Park Board is planning cuts to public park washrooms. Please speak at Park Board this Monday December 13 at 7 pm.
To get on the speakers list you must call the Board Secretary by noon on Monday. The number for the Board Secretary is 604-257-8451.
It is time that we demanded park board caretakers be brought back to the empty field-houses.
40 caretaker positions were chopped a number of years back with Park board citing savings.
Instead Park board hired flying squads to clean the washrooms whereas the caretakers easily did the work at a much lower cost.
Isn't it ironic now that Park board wants to cut the cleaning of our park washrooms being done by the flying squads which replaced the caretakers.
Caretakers in our parks do a great service for little cost to the public. They ensure our parks are clean and safe for the children.
They live rent free and the Park board pays for the heat and electricity of the field-houses which they would in any case.
Many of the caretakers received a small stipend of about $400.00 a month which is considerably lower than the unionized wages that the flying squad receive.
It makes no sense that the Park board cut the caretakers in the first place so lets demand that our Caretakers be brought back!
Jamie Lee Hamilton
tricia_foxx@yahoo.com
posted by Jamie Lee Hamilton @ 2:28 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
|They live rent free and the Park board pays for the heat and electricity of the field-houses which they would in any case.
I estimate that the "direct, or "marginal" cost of a caretaker is $1,000 to $2,000 per YEAR!
This is about the only $ actually saved by putting a caretaker on the street - even "repairs" which COULD in some circumstances be a marginal cost, is mostly , in the case of these 30-90 year-old, 400 square foot palaces, due to age.
So why have PB reduced by attrition the number of caretakers from about 50 seven years ago to 25-35 today?
Come to PB meeting Thursday and you MAY (or may not) find out) - I heard a rumour just today, which I will have to verify, but which, if true, may cause PB major headaches, with or without caretakers!
|Many of the caretakers received a small stipend of about $400.00 a month which is considerably lower than the unionized wages that the flying squad receive.
Sorry, not true! Once upon a time this was the case, but the last I knew of this practice was that circa 1990, John Harper, then caretaker at Killarney, (since demolished to make room for a road straightening of Rupert, near 41st Ave, a job that may never be done), one of several postings during his 25-year career as a caretaker, which helped subsidize his REAL JOB as an actor, was paid $175/month for extra duties - since 1999, when Eric Meagher was promoted to Stanley Park, all of this kind of work has gone to the unionized "Flying Squad"- John has since "come alive and gone to Heaven" (his native Scotland), leaving Slocan Park fieldhouse vacant - a fire in the mens' washroom soon rendered the building unusable, and the Slocan Park daily outdoor Tai-Chi fraternity has for the past 2 years been making do with Porta-Potties, at PB expense, all for the sake of a "ha'penny-worth of tar".
But never fear, a total renovation of the building, at HUGE expense, is nearing completion (complete with washrooms AND a caretaker suite)- just in time to be closed next year to save cleaning costs?????
[Hey, Jack, when will you finish painting that wall? I've come to knock it down? :-) ]
|It makes no sense that the Park board cut the caretakers in the first place so lets demand that our |Caretakers be brought back!
You got that right - apart from cost (see above), why would you trade a 24-7-365-day-a-year watch dog for two daily flying visits by the Flying Squad?
If it "beats you", it "beats me" too!
A Nony Mouse
(for now)
Longtime Park Board Caretaker
PS
The PB meeting is moved to Thurs, Dec 16th, when budget matters will be the only item on the Agenda
PPS
Please forgive my feeble posting -- it is my first ever "blog", I did not realize that "Listservs" were so soon outdated
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