A DOWNPOUR BEFORE IT RAINED–Flooding shown in the lower foreground at Conejo Creek Park North didn’t come from clouds. Sprinkler water and tax dollars fell in the park, so much that joggers avoided granite paths, only to hear and feel the squish of wet grass beneath their shoes. Park superintendent Matt Kouba is checking into it. “We don’t want puddles and we don’t want to throw water or money away,” he said. As clouds gathered in the sky above Thousand Oaks Sunday night, Conejo Recreation and Park District’s “smart” sprinklers beat Mother Nature to the punch by filling Conejo Creek Park North with standing puddles, slippery concrete and a muddy path.

The I-Central weather-controlled sprinkler system is supposed to receive notice from weather reports on the Internet and act accordingly. Matt Kouba, park district superintendent, said he thought the sprinkler system “may have watered 50 percent of its normal time” on Sunday night.

Still, the sprinklers that are only supposed to water the grass made mud out of a decomposed granite path, causing Monday morning exercisers to walk and jog on wet, squishy grass.

Puddles filled low spots, such as one around a utility box. Cement areas under picnic tables and covered picnic areas were also wet, as were concrete areas around benches and walkways.

“We don’t want cement to be watered—that’s a hazard. It sounds like there’s a broken valve. That would explain it,” Kouba said.

The park district has removed shrubs and turf and let landscape “go brown” in the 65 CRPD locations around town since the city has ordered water users to cut back, he said.

Thirty-five park district workers are supposed to be checking twice a month on how the sprinklers are working on park-owned land, Kouba said.

Residents call the park district daily at (805) 495-6471 to report areas where they think it can improve, he said.

The city has asked citizens to report neighbors who aren’t following the city’s Level I water requirements, which include watering only three days a week at night, letting sprinklers run no more than 15 minutes each day, and not watering hard surfaces. The city’s water hotline number is (805) 375-5747.

It’s hard for the park district to find the best time to water parks, Kouba said. They can’t water the lawn before it’s mowed and they don’t water on weekends when activities fill the park. Therefore, on Sunday nights, the park gets more water than on the other days of the week, he said.

Kids kicking sprinkler heads, bikes running over them and sand clogging the system are some of the reasons the sprinklers at Conejo Creek Park North might have been watering the wrong areas and needing some adjustments, he said.

“We don’t want to water concrete. We don’t want there to be puddles,” Kouba said.