Not even a slight breeze ruffled the unwanted pond behind Periwinkle School on Sunday afternoon.
At the risk of seeming repetitive, here’s another look from Albany’s Periwinkle Park toward Periwinkle Elementary School, taken Sunday.
And as you can see, the massive puddle in the space between the school and the park was still there.
The cause of all this water pooling where normally there’s mostly grass was a plugged drain system, according to what I heard from Albany Parks on Thursday, and the school district was taking the lead on pumping to get rid of the deluge.
On Nextdoor, the social media platform, a nearby resident reported Friday that a significant portion of “Periwinkle Pond 2.0” had been drained.
On Sunday the bike and I were headed to south Albany via the Periwinkle Bikepath and went through the park again.
The water level of the temporary lake was lower than it had been on Thursday. But there was more pumping or drain cleaning to be done before that portion of Periwinkle Park or the school grounds could be reclaimed.
According to a map of Albany tax lots, the boundary between the school and city park properties is somewhere close to or under the water, which is why draining the pond concerns both the city and the school. (hh)
Good thing there are trees at Periwinke Park, good for leaning a bike against.
I checked it the day it was pumped and all that was left was mud and a few inches of murky water in the lower area (closest to the playground). I returned yesterday (Saturday) and the water was back. I use the level on the picnic table legs as a gauge and it was about halfway up. Checked it out again this morning and the water was higher than Saturday. It also had again encroached past the cyclone fence into the play area a bit.
I wonder if it is actually coming from a broken fresh water pipe…
What really struck me when the water first appeared was the hundred or so ducks moved right over to the new lake. They were having a ball it seemed. Not a duck did I see on Periwinkle Lake!