The work never gets easier but it sure gets harder. It got a lot harder on Canada Day when the city was drenched in one of the worst downpours.
Included in there somewhere is the clean-up crew/grounds crew at the York Lake Golf course.
For the first time in a long time the course had to shut down to make damage repairs at the course.
Merv Secundiak, head of the grounds crew at York Lake, said he didn't even have to set foot on the course to know that it wasn't good.
He even decided not to call in the rest of the grounds crew to come in and help him clean the course."I've never seen (anything) to this extent. It was unreal to see that," he said during a phone interview with the newspaper.
That was his reaction to the mess that awaited both himself and Bob Variyan when they saw the amount of rain that fell.
"I knew it was going to be something to be a problem within an hour."
For the first time, the course saw a brief closure period to ensure the public safety, said Secundiak.
"(We) made an assessment of the course on Friday and decided the course had to close until Monday (July 5)."
He described the kind of mess that awaited them when they were able to start the clean-up process."The pumphouse is way elevated (4 feet)," he said. "We're still moving water off the back nine (since July 2). We've been moving about six inches. The water had nowhere to go."
The rain came down so hard that it's going to take more than a week to remove the water completely, explains Secundiak. Being part of a grounds crew means he's not unfamiliar with the task but also being a 20-year veteran of the work, this is unlike anything he's ever seen.
It's going to take awhile to get it all cleared out.
The hours of work have shot up too, he adds.
"We're working 12-hour shifts. We're still moving water as we speak."
He said he's going about the task a little different than he usually does, saying the high volumes of rain resulted in a reversal of the irrigation system.
A small crew of only six people share the duties of having to do the clean up which included everything from picking up broken tree branches to water removal from various parts of the course.Secundiak said that when he initially saw the damage to the course, his first thought was to tell the rest of his crew not to bother coming in, asides, from Variyan. The back nine holes was by far the worst he says. Only this past Monday, the front half was just barely playable and he had to make some detours for the car/golf cart paths.
He said if there is any benefit to having so much water on the golf course it's that there is plenty of ground moisture and the crew won't be needing any water for a long time, he said.
It's still going to be a couple weeks before the course gets back to ideal conditions, he added.
It was also surprising to see that there wasn't any permanent damage to the course and nobody was hurt during the storm, says Secundiak.
Typical jobs of the grounds crew involve a lot of maintenance when necessary but most of it, on a day-to-day basis involves cutting grass. The York Lake grounds crew consists of Secundiak, Variyan, Stephanie Vehnon, Kevin Hancheroff, Brad Kaye and Amy Kelbaugh.
