Briefs from the City Administrator

Sprinkler spruce-up
When it comes to a home’s irrigation system, a little maintenance goes a long way. Homes with clock timer-controlled irrigation systems use about 50 percent more water outdoors than homes without irrigation systems. Your system can waste even more if it’s programmed incorrectly, a sprinkler head is pointed in the wrong direction or you have a leak. Before you ramp up your watering efforts, spruce up your irrigation system by remembering four simple steps: inspect, connect, direct and select.
Inspect. Check your system for clogged, broken or missing sprinkler heads. Better yet, go with a pro – find an irrigation professional certified by a WaterSense-labeled program to do the work for you.
Connect. Examine points where the sprinkler heads connect to pipes or hoses. If water pools in your landscape or you have large wet areas, you could have a leak in your system. A leak about as small as the tip of a ballpoint pen (or 1/32nd of an inch) can waste about 6,300 gallons of water per month!
Direct. Make sure to direct your sprinklers so that they apply water only to the landscape – not the driveway, house or sidewalk.
Select. An improperly scheduled irrigation controller can waste water and money. Update your system’s watering schedule to align with the seasons, or select a WaterSense-labeled, weather-based irrigation controller to take the guesswork out of scheduling.
You can save even more water outdoors by incorporating water-smart landscaping principles into your landscape design. Visit https://www.epa.gov/watersense/landscaping-tips.