Recently, a group of Squamish seniors assembled as usual at the district lawn bowling facility for, we hoped, a morning of friendly competition and socializing. For the 98 per cent of Squamishers who do not know of the whereabouts or even the existence of this once beautiful facility, the green is located at the end of Village Green Way in the Solterra development. The bowling green was acquired by the district as part of the enhancements demanded of the developer. It was gratefully received amid much fanfare and political posturing by the council of the day – and then promptly forgotten by it and subsequent councils.
Although it is difficult to get anybody to admit responsibility for its present deplorable condition, the bowling green is the responsibility of the parks and recreation department. Although the present world champions of lawn bowling are no longer seniors, I can see why the present administrators would find it difficult to widely promote in the context of “hardwired for adventure.”
On the playing surface recently, I found my foot ensnared by a weed the size of a dinner plate. It was obvious that no maintenance had taken place for over a week. The weeds were absolutely luxuriant, outgrowing the grass about two to one, a much healthier green colour and occupying about one quarter of the area. Six-inch dandelions were in abundance. There were several large patches of dead grass.
Just how, you may well ask, did this once beautiful facility reach the state where it is now a cause for shame and humiliation? During the 2014 budget determination, it was decided to cut the budget for the maintenance of the bowling green. This meant that there was only enough money to cut the grass once a week. The people responsible for maintenance came up with a very clever solution: Cut off the automatic sprinkler system. The grass won’t grow and voilà! once a week will be enough. Unfortunately during the long hot summer, the grass died and the weeds took its place. Indeed, if weeds were edible, we could call it a community garden.
This year when we arrived at the green and found the situation unchanged, one of our group emailed the person in charge asking if we could look forward to any improvement. The immediate answer was that an attempt was made to have the budget restored to its previous level, council had turned it down. So, goodbye bowling green, hello dog park.
The good people of the service club who so kindly donated the shelters and benches could not have foreseen this act of public vandalism and probably deserve an apology. What those benches and shelters look out upon now is a far cry from what it was when they were installed.
Ray Miles
Squamish
