Berwick Kings Football Club member Vedran Askraba, City of Casey sportsground coordinator Danny Edmunds, councillors Wayne Smith and Janet Halsall at Betula Reserve in Doveton, where one of the two portable water tanks is located to help establish warm season grass.WINTER sporting teams are beginning pre-season training and Casey Council officials are also preparing local sporting grounds for the upcoming year.
Several teams were inconvenienced last year by an inability to train on certain grounds but council is taking a proactive approach in ’08 to help keep sports grounds playable for the winter season.
Casey mayor Janet Halsall said 20 water tanks had been installed at existing sports facilities, including two portable tanks that are used to irrigate ovals that have been recently planted with warm season grasses.
“We all need to play our part in ensuring that we conserve our most precious resource by adjusting our water use practices,” she said.
Casey Council has also received two bore licences; one for Edwin Flack Reserve in Berwick, which has been drilled, and one at Pearcedale which is due to be drilled this year.
“The drought and warm weather is certainly taking its toll on our sports grounds, but council has been extremely proactive, for a long period of time, in using a number of water saving initiatives to combat the effects of the drought.”
“Once established, warm season grasses use up to 50 per cent less water than traditional cool season grasses and all new ovals constructed in Casey are planted with warm season grasses,” she said.
“We are also extremely lucky to have some of our sports facilities, including Casey Fields and the Cranbourne Soccer Club grounds, connected to the Eastern Irrigation Scheme which receive a total of 60 megalitres of Class A recycled water each year.
“We hope to connect Clyde Recreation Reserve to the Eastern Irrigation Scheme in the future.
“None of council’s water saving initiatives would be possible without the support of our local sports clubs.
“Council has worked very closely with our local clubs to accommodate training and match play needs as well as assisting with topping up water tanks as required,” Cr Halsall said.
