The Park Ridge Park District is committed to ensuring the public is safe in all that we do. Recently, we have become aware that questions have come up about some of the lawn care products we are using.
It is our responsibility to be transparent and provide education about the District’s business. President Harrington stated, “to devote the appropriate amount of time to the issue, as current Board President, it is my intention to call a Special Board Meeting on November 14th to discuss our current District lawn care practices. A special meeting will give this subject matter the time and transparency it deserves.” We welcome anyone who would like to learn more about this topic to join us on November 14 at 7:00pm.
As you may be aware, Park District staff have recently made specific efforts to be more environmentally responsible with our lawn care program. Our District has discontinued the use of many traditional lawn care products with harsh warnings and replaced them with safer products. The Park Ridge Park District is proud to be among the leaders in Illinois Park Districts to switch to more natural lawn care products, and we are consistently looking for opportunities to be more environmentally/fiscally responsible. To the best of the Park District’s knowledge, all of the products utilized on the Park District athletic fields and grounds are completely safe and are applied in accordance with the published guidelines. Below is a list of all the products we have put on the turf in our parks in 2019. All of these products are natural or natural based except for the 0-0-7 with acelepryn, which is used for grub control but was last applied in April 2019, in select locations as needed.
2019 Products
0-0-7 acelepryn
The Sanctuary 8-8-8
Foliar Pak-Grow-In
10-3-2
Black Gypsum
Biosolids
Fiesta
Tetra (2,4-D)
Beneficial Nematodes
Finalsan
Biosolids applications have been made at the following parks:
2017
Southwest Park – Fall application
Northwest Park – Fall application
2018
Southwest Park – Fall application
Northwest Park – Fall application
2019
Northeast Park – July application
Centennial Park – July application
Emerson School – July application
Lincoln School – July application
Washington School – July application
Our biosolids program has been completed for 2019, and there are currently no future applications scheduled. Future applications of biosolids would not be considered until summer or fall of 2020, “so this gives us time as a Board and the community time to make educated decisions,” says President Harrington. The Exceptional Quality (EQ) Biosolids used at our District are produced by the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) and must follow federal (CFR 40 503.13) and state (415 ILCS 5/22.56a) regulations. Here is a link to the MWRD biosolids page: https://mwrd.org/biosolids.
The Park District Football Affiliate has requested that the District refrain from placing lawn care products on the football fields that they utilize at the Park District. While the District does not agree with this action, we will respect their request and halt any application of any product on the football fields their affiliate utilizes for the remainder of the fall season.
We hope you will join us for a discussion on this topic on November 14 at 7:00pm.