Monday, March 11 ~ LANGFORD.
~ by Mary P Brooke, West Shore Voice News
Spring is almost here, and the City of Langford has begun this season’s installation of artificial grass in some public spaces areas around town.
“It’s a program I came up with three years ago with buy-in from the development community,” says Langford Mayor Stew Young. He explains that it’s a specific ground cover product for medians and that developers pay for the majority of the cost.
The cost of about $200,000 per year for this project over the next five years is costlier than installing sod. But it will pay for itself in three years.
“You know, it’ll look good year-round,” says Young. It pops up on medians, along walkways and other public spaces.
The mayor explains that within three years the costs are recouped. The overall expenditure comes out of development cost charges and a bit of out of the parks and transportation budgets, he told West Shore Voice News.
He also remarked on the safety for parks crews working on the medians as traffic whizzes by. The year-round green artificial turf eliminates that danger for workers.
Artificial grass of course requires less maintenance (no watering, no piping installation for in-ground irrigation) and eliminates the need for fertilizer, which together with reduced labour costs is an overall cost saving for the municipality.
The grass-like material is not as soft as living grass, but it won’t be brown in dry summer weather. This adds to the visual appeal of streets around the fast-growing community that sees an influx of more visitors every year.
“It’s just better in the long run to do it,” says Young.