Today (Tues. July 11), a crew from A Plus Outdoor Services (aka A+) was testing all the irrigation zones in our Meadow Place development. They turned on each zone and put white flags on sprinkler heads that need adjusting and orange flags on the sprinkler heads that need repair or replacement. If you see an A+ flag in your yard, a tech will be back Wednesday or Thursday to do the actual work. They may still have to do more testing so that they can see each sprinkler working.
The A+ crew leader said that they also need to increase the sprinkler run times, so that each zone runs at least 35 to 40 minutes. That means on odd days the sprinklers for odd number homes will start at 6 pm and finish about 10am the next morning. And on even days, the even number homes will start at 6pm and run until 10am the next day.
This means that some odd number homes get watered on even days, and some even number homes get watered on odd days. A+ has informed the City of Blaine about this situation, so the city should be OK with it.
Some homeowners have asked why A+ doesn't just run the sprinklers early in the morning, which can be best for lawns. Our development has over 70 sprinkler zones and only one 2" pipe as the source of irrigation water. With the water pressure we have, we can only run 2 to 3 zones at once. And each zone needs to run for a half hour or longer to get an adequate amount of water on the lawn. So, this means the sprinklers have to run all night, every night, to get the job done.
A+ is working to get our irrigation system working as well as it can. They have some ideas for improving the system, too. But everyone agrees that the best thing that could happen is to start getting some regular rainfall!