City Administrator Tina Volek called the Swords Park situation "an emergency" and said city staff would return to the city council with a plan for funding the additional work.

"Were it something less serious, I wouldn't be recommending this to you," Volek told the city council.

Care must be taken, Mumford said, not to allow a falling rock to damage utilities that are buried under Sixth Avenue North.

City engineer Debi Meling said she was at the Zimmerman Trail site on Monday morning after the first rock fall and had to tell about eight onlookers to move along to avoid being injured by another series of cascading rocks.

“Because the second rock was obviously coming down, we got serious about people not getting out there,” she said. “What happened (Monday) is exactly what we have been afraid of. With this winter’s freeze/thaw and all the wet weather, this is one of those years you can expect to see this.”

“We would be wrong,” she added, “not to take advantage of (GeoStabilization International) being here.”