- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
We receive media releases from seven municipalities. We don't always publish those that are about scheduled maintenance operations, but this one from the Municipality of Meaford (below) stood out as a great example of useful communication with residents.
It came five days before the project is to begin, describes what the municipality is doing, and answers all the questions:
- Why we need it.
- What impact it will have on your life.
- When it will be finished
- What alternative services are available in the meantime
- Where it fits in the municipal budget
The same notice is on the front page of the Meaford website and on its Facebook today. But if you miss all that, Service Disruption Notices are up at the sites, well BEFORE the work begins.
Communications will never reach everyone, but residents who get clear information like this don't need to call city hall or their councillors, are less snarky on social media and don't send messages to their local media to ask "what's happening at my park?"
Good work Meaford! This is how it's done.
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Beginning Monday, June 19, work will begin to replace the existing pea gravel playground surfaces at Peter Cameron Park and Bognor Community Park with engineered wood fibre.
During the Municipality’s annual playground inspection in 2022, third party inspectors identified pea gravel as being no longer recognized as a safe grounding material for playgrounds, and recommended that the Municipality replace existing pea gravel surfaces with engineered wood fibre.
Please be advised, this work will take approximately one week to complete (Monday, June 19, to Friday, June 23).
During this time, the playground area at the Peter Cameron and Bognor Community Parks will be inaccessible.
Service Disruption Notices have been posted in the area and are available here. Other local playgrounds can be found by visiting www.meaford.ca/Parks.
This project was approved as part of the Municipality of Meaford’s 2023 Capital Projects. For information on other Capital Projects in 2023, please visit www.meaford.ca/CapitalProjects.
*****
source: media release, Municipality of Meaford
