The higher priorities in today's parks management strategies include, versatility, ease of maintenance, cutting labour costs, and improving interdepartmental communications. With reduced budgets, but the same needs as before, parks departments are having to be more efficient.
Manpower or should I say "person power" has been reduced by as much as 60% in some municipalities, particularly in the ranks of seasonal staff. Don Young Regional Manager of Parks Maintenance for the City of Toronto said. "The number of seasonal staff employee's we can hire these days has been significantly reduced, which makes training of full time staff a key issue. Putting the right person on the right machine is essential, as motivated people are more productive. Our staff works 10 hour 4 day work weeks, so far this system is meeting our demand with success."
Reducing expenses by purchasing more versatile equipment is something a number of parks departments are doing. As an example, a traditional five to six-foot cutting machine can be replaced with a ten to sixteen-foot mulching rotary cutter. This equipment will cut more grass in the same time period while reducing or eliminating the need to collect and transport the grass clippings or leaves to a land fill site. This direction requires a larger investment but the machines last longer and require less maintenance. Another major trend is towards equipment that can be used all year round, for instance, the same sixteen-foot mower could be equipped with an eight foot sweeper to clean skating rinks in the winter.
Parks departments and works departments, from a service perspective have a great deal in common. These similarities provide another opportunity to effectively purchase equipment. Vick Hergott, Director of Parks and Properties for The City of Branford, Ontario, said they have co-purchased equipment with the Works department. For instance, Works bought an all terrain vehicle that they use for sidewalk snow clearing. His department purchased a 16 foot rotary mower assembly and a sweeper essembly for this machine. "By cost sharing with Works, in this one instance, we managed to net out $30,000.00 in savings," he said.
Time management schedules are essential as well, Terry Robbins heads up Centralized Mechanical Maintenance Systems for the City of Etobicoke. He gave a couple of examples where time saved money "Duplication of services can result in extra dollars being spent. There would be no point in having a work crew show up at a sports field that was booked by the Recreation department for a special event. There would also be no point sending a work crew out on a priority call to trim a tree that was touching hydro wires, if a another crew was scheduled to conduct maintenance on that boulevard the next week. Economically it would be wise to handle both tasks on the same trip. These examples are isolated instances but in the bigger picture they really add up."
In the case of a new or re-developed park, bringing planning and maintenance together can be advantageous. Ron Caswell, Supervisor of Grounds Maintenance with the City of Vancouver had this to say.:"In past years quite often there would be a park designed by Planning, and Operations/Grounds Maintenance would not have been consulted. The result was that once maintenance took it over we would just go in and change it so we could efficiently maintain it. Obviously doing things in this manner was not cost effective. Today, as a group, we seriously look at this as communications play a huge part in getting the job done right the first time."
Spreading fertilizers can be labour intensive. In the past fertilizers may have been applied several times annually, now the trend is to use those with staying power that only need to be used once a year.
Daisy Moore, a horticultualist with 12 years experience in the field, says: "Nitrogen is the most important element when discussing the potential use of fertilizers. In its available form, nitrogen is very mobile and will be wasted if applied at too high a rate, leading to leaching, volatilization and luxury consumption."
"However, using controlled release nitrogen such as IBDU, medium, long chain methylene urea's, polymer coated or using natural organics, it will effectively supply nitrogen at a slow and steady rate. This will eliminate several fertilizer applications and reduce labour cost." She is also a believer in doing tests so that you apply the right mix of fertilizers.
Efficiency in agricultural systems is of paramount importance when considering the environmental impact of management practices and the economic implications of inefficiency. Ms. Moore goes onto say: "You have to measure the nutrient requirements of a plant based on such things as a soil test, the plant type, its maintenance level, water supply and location. Only when the nutrient requirements are known, can a fertilizer program be designed using the correct formulations which are correctly timed for maximum benefit."
In conclusion, parks management has definately becoming more challenging, due to the performance levels departments must currently meet. As for the future, the rumbbling of further budget cuts may be heard, which in turn, would call for even greater efficiency. In retrospect, if these challenges didn't exist, you would need another reason for getting up every morning.
William Bishop is an associate writer with Cornerstones Magazine