We are committed to catching up on park maintenance as soon as possible.
Over the past two weeks, Seattle Parks and Recreation staff have been working around the clock to support the city-wide response to the record-setting snow storm. Grounds and maintenance crews have been working across Seattle to remove downed trees and branches; clear pathways at community centers, pools and libraries; and support SDOT in clearing critical pedestrian walkways, especially around schools, as well as plowing major bike paths and smaller streets.
Throughout the storm response, maintenance staff have continued to service parks, but at a lower capacity than normal.
As we head into the weekend and experience improved weather conditions, we will be ramping up our efforts to clean and maintain parks. Over the weekend, we will be deploying extra staff to work in every district on priority maintenance, including removing garbage and litter, clearing critical pathways and sidewalks in and around parks, and removing fallen branches.
We expect to have all garbage cans emptied at parks by the end of the weekend. Clearing park pathways of snow and ice will be an ongoing effort. We will be dedicating extra staff time this weekend to clear pathways at parks, prioritizing sites with higher use or special events.
Seattle Parks and Recreation is also assessing synthetic turf fields to determine if snow and ice removal can be done without damage to the field. Our goal is to resume athletic games at these sites as soon as possible.
Our Recreation facilities, including community centers and pools, resumed normal operations on Thursday, Feb. 14. We are working hard to restore our full park maintenance services as soon as possible and thank you for your patience!