ANSWER:
At times community members may not see much rain during a particular day, but we may have experienced significant rain in the overnight/early morning hours prior to the scheduled use.
When rain events like this happen, it can take considerable time for the water to drain off of or away from the diamonds and the outfields.
Diamond closure decisions are made for two reasons:
- to protect the integrity of both the infield and outfield areas (if you play on saturated areas, the grass gets ripped, divots are created in both infield and outfield, which incurs more maintenance costs and potential risk through injuries that may occur to players following a group that chose to play in wet and muddy conditions
- wet grass conditions can become slipping hazards. Although we do have drainage tile beneath some of our diamonds, significant amounts of rain still takes time to drain away, and some parks drain better than others.
The process for closing diamonds is scrutinized by the sportsfields staff throughout the day, but the communication to close the diamond is forwarded to the Parks and Recreation office by 3pm on each rain day event.
Parks and Recreation administration staff communicate the closures in three ways:
- An email is sent to the affected convenors of the leagues who are scheduled to use the diamond
- Diamond closures are posted on MYCNN community notification network which reaches everyone who subscribes to MYCNN. All community members are encouraged to register with MYCNN for multiple community emergency notification options including road closures, diamond cancellation, boil water notices, evacuation notices etc.
- Parks and Recreation staff also post the diamond closure(s) on our City of Sarnia Facebook page
Thank you for your interest in the proper use and preservation of our local Sportsfields to ensure safe playing surfaces for all users to enjoy.