The Washington Park trucks and general maintenance continue to cause a lot of damage to the Park. I have lots of photos of huge ruts, erosion, damage caused by mowing. I have seen trucks drive on the grass parallel to the road. Why not drive on he road instead of the greens???? Over the last year, I have communicated with the Mayor's Office. I have written to the Parks Commissioner. I have commented many time on click fix. So far, nothing has made a bit of difference. Very sad to witness such abuse daily.

This is a daily problem. It's destructive to the park and dangerous for park users.

My life flashed before my eyes on Friday when a big DGA truck took a wide turn and drove up onto the pad surrounding the Soldiers & Sailors monument. I thought the truck was out of control and that I was going to be run down.

That's DG*S*

Thank you for your concern, this issue has been received by our department and is under review.

Sometimes work requires the use of some larger vehicles. Any damages caused by those vehicles will be repaired by the crews.

While this may be true, I don't see why heavy trucks need to be driven across grass and up sidewalks in the morning for trash collection, especially in areas where there are paved roads RIGHT THERE. People are walking in the park and walking their dogs in the morning, and the grass is often wet at the time with rain or morning dew. The heavy trucks tear of the turf and compact it, causing damage, and they are a danger to pedestrians and pets as well.

Just this morning I watched a truck drive across a short span of the grass form one trash can to another, and then up the sidewalk, when there was no reason for it to not be on State or Willett streets. It seems more a matter of laziness or a lack of training than an actual necessity.

Again this morning I saw several trucks being driven all over the Washington Park lawns, leaving ruts and tearing up grass. In one case a large truck was driven across the dog park area, stopping for the driver to get out and pick up individual pieces of litter--this is not an efficient use of a large city vehicle and it shouldn't be on the lawns anyway. A simple golf cart (or a worker on foot!) would do it. In another case I saw a truck drive fast (too fast) across another lawn to get to a garbage container that could have as easily been reached from the road. Even the lawn mower are abused--they are driven much too fast, turning abruptly and leaving ruts. Some workers don't seem to respect the park they work in (maybe because many don't even live in the city). Finally, there are just too many vehicles and staff for such a small park--an unnecessary expense for a city with very high taxes. I bet the park could be efficiently maintained by a work force 1/2 this size, with 1/2 the number of vehicles. Park maintenance and supervision needs a complete restructuring--maybe the incoming mayor will finally overhaul this department. I welcome a response more detailed than just "we're looking into it." Thank you.

Heavy Truck Damage in Washington Park --- the photo speaks a thousand words.

DGS, please explain the above photo and give the date when this damage will be "repaired." The DGS comment above misses the point: everyone understands that sometimes heavy vehicles are necessary in a park but they should not be part of the everyday trash pickup and driven on lawns. Apparently DGS does not really care about the comments posted here.

Thank you for your concern, this issue has been received by our department and is under review.

Thank you for using this application to report an issue in the City of Albany. Please know that the report was received by this department and your issue has now been resolved.

Thanks for fixing this issue!

Heavy Truck Lawn Damage in Park continues. This has not been fixed. Please disregard my previous mistaken "thanks". Hit the WRONG key. Trucks still drive all over the grounds. Tire marks are all over the place if you need proof--just walk around and you will see.

Heavy Truck damage Washington Park photos as of November 23

This is STILL going on all the time. I saw a dump truck being driven all over the lawns yesterday going from garbage can to garbage can--when he could have just stayed on the roads and done the same thing! This shouldn't take years to fix--where are the supervisors? Also: I see LOTS of idling DGS vehicles all over the City--please enforce your no idling policy.

As noted prior the Washington Park crews are at times required to drive across the grass to perform job duties. Any damage that is done is repaired by the crews. We have talked to the crews to minimize this practice. Thank you for your concern.

The crew repeatedly drives across the lawn unnecessarily, and they DO NOT repair the damage. There are tire tracks from heavy trucks all over the park. This is an ongoing, frequently recurring problem.

Simply saying they need to drive across the lawns for any purpose and claiming that they fix that damage is not a sufficient response to this issue.

Here we go again. The earth is far too soft now to be driving heavy trucks on the park grounds. There is lots more mud than usual due to winter damage in general and due to plowing damage which was unintentional, but damaging. I hope that there are plans to seed the muddy areas--which are abundant and dangerous in terms of slides, slips and falls.

Right now, there is serious damage throughout Washington Park due to mowing too fast and too low and due to heavy vehicles on the grounds. For whatever reasons, the maintenance staff continue to do damage.

Thank you for your concern, this issue has been received by our department and is under review.

This is still happening. Just this morning I saw a dump truck drive the length of the park on the lawn just to empty trash cans that could be reached from the street.

There is also much unnecessary use of golf carts and the tractor-mounted leaf blower. Staff drive around and around the park in golf carts chasing single pieces of trash, or blowing a handful of leaves that have fallen. Very inefficient and expensive. There needs to be a departmental review and overhaul of how such work is done in Washington Park.

Thank you for your concern, this issue has been received by our department and is under review.

Thank you for your concern in this matter. As we have previously stated it is necessary for the Washington Park and DGS crews to use various types of equipment to perform their job duties within the park. Which include but are not limited to pickup trucks, dump trucks, golf carts and lawn tractors. It is necessary at times for these pieces of equipment to drive across the grass and fields to perform their job duties. The crews do their best to minimize any damage from happening. If any damage is caused while performing these job duties, the crews make repairs of said damage. Once again thank you for your concern in this matter.

But why do they drive on the grass when there are roads or paths to take instead? I I see your point that it can't be avoided to drive on the grass, but it does seem that the default is to drive a truck anywhere at any time. Is there even a policy to clarify this sort of thing? It sounds like you are just dismissing the original person complaining about this when, in fact, it may be a valid complaint.