BRIEF: City Can’t Cut Grass Due to Lack of Staff and Broken Equipment

The City of Hamilton is receiving a large number of complaints about overgrown grass and weeds at parks and parkades across Hamilton.

In an update, quietly posted to the City website on Friday, Acting Director Environmental Services Cynthia Graham says the City’s parks section is short-staff with 19 full-time positions vacant and 39 summer student positions unfilled.

“Parks Operations has seen impacts to staffing levels due to retirements, Covid absences, and difficulty in hiring for positions,” Graham’s memo states. “These factors have led to a delay in getting sports fields cut and lined and to the standard normally achieved.”

Graham adds, “Many Parks staff are new and supervisors and superintendents are working hard to train new teams.”

The City says weather conditions prevented early rounds of cutting.

The City “has also had multiple equipment breakdowns across multiple yard locations, which slows down the wide area cutting schedule across the City,” Graham writes.