MORE than $40,000 of ratepayers’ money went down the drain in Katherine in the past year from smashed pop-up sprinklers.
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An already expensive repair bill blew out by almost $6000 in just one year.
A Katherine Town Council report shows the 2015/16 sprinkler replacement cost of $43,300 had increased $5750 from 2014/15.
Council officers blamed vandalism and cars driving over the sprinklers as major causes of damage.
Mayor Fay Miller said a boost in tourist traffic also increased the repair bill, particularly blaming large four-wheel-drives entering town parks.
“We have more people that believe that because they’re in a four-wheel-drive and they’re looking for shade they can drive anywhere,” Ald. Miller said.
“It comes up every month in our report because it’s just a ridiculous amount of money being spent on replacing damaged sprinkler heads.”
The council have installed bollards at the Katherine skate park and in Katherine East to stop people driving over the sprinklers.
There is still a huge issue with people kicking the sprinklers while they were in use, council operations manager David Moore said.
Mr Moore said replacing the sprinklers had almost occupied the entire working week of a council worker.
He said it cost about $50 to replace a single sprinkler which included labor and incidentals.
“Our peak period for needing to replace sprinklers is in the June school holidays,” he said.
“Sometimes we can have a whole sporting field taken out which is really frustrating.”
Mr Moore said they had been watering the parks during the day because people were less likely kick them at that time.
“It’s not ideal because of the evaporation but our water cycles are always changing so sometimes we do have to water at night,” he said.
Ald. Miller said while the council was working to find solutions to cut costs, with measures like the bollards, maintaining a strong sprinkler system in the town was important.
“It’s important the council provides good amenities for our community and the parks happen to be one of them,” she said.
“We have extended periods of dry between the end of one wet season and the beginning of the other and the place would look pretty miserable if we didn’t have some green parklands.”
