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'It's a problem': Downtown BIA disappointed over city pulling parklette flower watering

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There’s been a breakdown in a downtown beautification partnership between the downtown business improvement association (BIA), member businesses and the city over the watering of flowers adorning parklette patios.

A few weeks ago, the city advised the downtown BIA it will no longer be watering the flower baskets as it had the previous year because as the pandemic eases, a full complement of other flowers are back out on city streets and as of July 8, staff can no longer spend time watering the parklette flowers, according to parks and facilities executive director, James Chacko.

“It's simply not something that we can do as part of our regular day anymore without jeopardizing or eliminating watering something else that we are being mandated by council to do,” said Chacko.

The partnership was initially struck in 2021, when council approved the waiver of fees for businesses to put patios over parking spots, referred to as “parklettes.”

As part of the program, the BIA and businesses split the cost of the flowers. The city sourced the planters and up until now, watered them.

“And this year, we did the same thing. And we went back to the same program and we got even more businesses on board just because of how successful it was last year,” said Pat Papadeas, the acting chair of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association.

The city told the BIA it would resume watering the flowers for the remainder of the season, but for a fee of $17,424. That cost was broken down to $9,737.60 for labour, $3,213.41 for ‘fringe’ costs and $4,473.60 for trucking fees.

“And that's just simply not in our budget this year,” said Papadeas, who expressed frustration over the fact that the program was so successful the past year-and-a-half, adding how taken aback the organization is that it was notified mid-way through this year’s program when they thought they were operating under the same rules of engagement as the previous year.

“It's disappointing that in the height of summer, suddenly the watering is going to stop,” she said.

Seventeen businesses now have to water their own plants, but Papadeas said that creates additional issues for them.

Most participating members aren’t open daily and others only operate in the evenings, leaving the flowers to scorch in the heat all day.

“I thought they were going to keep doing it, but it's unfortunate that they're not doing it anymore,” said Henry Kim, the owner of March 21 on Pelissier Street.

Kim said the watering trucks are already going up and down the street watering some of the city’s other flowers and doesn’t understand why they can’t soak theirs while on the route.

“It’s bad. But ee’ve got to figure it out,” he said.

Parks director Chacko said the BIA may feel like they were they promised watering services or had expectations that the city could provide the service year-round, but said the department was going above and beyond and could no longer incur the overtime or ignore other watering needs around the city, including in other BIAs.

“It certainly wasn't something that we said. We basically tried to do as much as we could,” Chacko said.

Papadeas hopes any additional business the beautification effort helped bring downtown doesn’t wilt away.

“What kind of partnership does the city actually want to have with its business districts when it says it supports small businesses? What does that mean?” asked Papadeas. “When something as simple as beautification and flowers doesn't get that support?”

“We were really fortunate to work with Jason Reynar, the city’s previous CAO, on this particular project and there were some great initiatives that became true partnerships,” said Papadeas.

“I'm not sure what's changed.” 

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