Signs warn users of dangerous debris on city soccer fields

Signs warn users of dangerous debris on city soccer fields
Broken glass, rocks, rusty nails, concrete dumped on field

Jonathan Woodward, Vancouver Sun
Published: Monday, September 24, 2007

Several ominous paper signs have been posted outside picketed Vancouver city parks, warning parents and children not to play on the grass because it may contain “broken glass, rusty nails, rocks or concrete.”

Soccer moms are worried that the signs — which preceded dumping of all of those items at Killarney Park last week — mean that other parks, including Douglas Park and Heather Park, could be strewn with debris.

“If there’s a warning out there, there’s an implied threat,” said Joan Lichtmann, 41.

“Who would do this? It’s dangerous for the kids and anyone who uses the field,” she said.

Another mom, Deborah Reiner, told The Sun she found the sign at Heather Park “threatening” when she first saw it.

The signs say: “Use at own risk. Playing field may contain: broken glass, rusty nails, rocks or concrete.” They are printed in black ink on paper affixed to wooden signs with tape.

Some have been ripped down, said Reiner, but at least one is still in place at Douglas Park and Killarney Park.

Both women said that it’s hard not to be suspicious of members of the union locals who are striking at the community centres nearby.

CUPE 1004 President Mike Jackson, who represents outside workers, said his workers were not involved.

Some 5,000 members of CUPE 15, which represents the city’s inside workers, and CUPE 1004, which represents workers including groundskeepers, have been on strike since late July.

While both sides are in mediation with private mediator Brian Foley, neither is speaking to the media.

When garbage was dumped outside Mayor Sam Sullivan’s Yaletown condominium in August, the Anti-Poverty Committee quickly claimed responsibility. Spokespeople for the APC couldn’t be reached Sunday.

Park board chairman Ian Robertson said he didn’t know of any signs, but said the board couldn’t take action against the vandals without evidence.

“Whoever’s doing it, you have to see them doing it,” he said. “We ask for the vigilance and the eyes and ears of the neighbours.”

Sixteen-year-old rugby player Jonathon Wong first discovered the nails on the field in Killarney park on Wednesday, and spent half an hour cleaning it up with his coach, John Falcos.

Then on Friday, when Lichtmann decided to hire a private contractor to mow the field, the contractor was stopped by union workers who said they were crossing the picket line.

Lichtmann announced that she would return on Saturday to mow the field herself, but by the time she and other parents arrived, someone else had dumped two distinct 10-metre trails of ash, broken industrial-sized glass, rusty nails and concrete on the field.

“The mowing was over,” said Falcos, who was there at the time. “If you put a mower on that, you’ll destroy your mower. If [a nail] shoots out it will kill someone.”

B.C.’s labour law says that an employer must not organize people to do the work of union workers during a strike, whether they are paid or not.

Lichtmann said that city managers had agreed to clean up Killarney Park by Tuesday.

Striking workers picketing the Killarney Community Centre would not give their names to The Sun, but denied that they had any involvement.