City parks plan calls for growing staff
In addition to addressing maintenance issues, proposal calls for more parks on south side
Every day on the job is a little different for Danny Griego, a seven-year veteran of the city of Santa Fe Parks Division. A parks maintenance worker, Griego trims weeds and empties trash bins. He rakes leaves at libraries, helps scrub graffiti off walls and removes unruly plants from medians. He helps prepare the Plaza for special events and is part of the cleanup crew once they’re over. And when people call the Parks Division about things like fallen trees or obstructions in public roadways, he’s there.
“We do quite a bit,” said Griego, who Friday was helping collect trimmed bush clippings at Monsignor Patrick Smith Park.
Staffing limitations within the Parks Division are one of several potential concerns raised in a preliminary draft of a Parks, Open Space, Trails and Recreation Master Plan issued by the city. The document assesses the strengths and weaknesses of Santa Fe’s Parks and Recreation Department and recommends proposals for addressing the city’s needs over the next 10 years.
There are dozens of recommendations in the first draft of the report, including easing the burden on limited park staff, hiring specialized Danny Griego, a maintenance worker with the city’s Parks Division, said, ‘More staff, I would say, just for getting work done and done faster,’ would help.
park workers and expanding access to parks on the south side of town.
Albuquerque urban planning consultant Sites Southwestwas tasked with preparing the report, which cost the city $105,000. Over the past year, Sites Southwest solicited input from
park staff, city officials, groups that use local facilities and members of the public.
City officials and residents will still have time to recommend changes at a series of meetings before the master plan goes to the City Council for approval.
“Until that final City Council meeting … [the report] stays just a draft so we can make tweaks or changes or adjustments that we see need
to be added,” said Rob Carter, director of Parks and Recreation.
“We really want buy-in, not only from our city councilors, but also from our community.”
According to the report, Santa Fe has enough park maintenance staff to scrape by, despite their range of duties. In addition to the city’s 70-plus parks, the department also takes care of city medians, public grounds at libraries and some schools, hundreds of acres of open space and helping with city-run events.
To provide a mental picture of how that works, Parks Division Director Richard Thompson uses the metaphor of making a peanut butter sandwich.
“Spreading that peanut butter thin enough that it reaches the edge of the bread, so that everybody gets a bite,” he said. “But nobody really enjoys the sandwich.”
In the draft report, Sites Southwest recommended the department partner with more volunteers for park maintenance. It also suggests the city could require event organizers hire their own third-party cleanup crews.
“That would help,” longtime maintenance worker Griego said. “The thing is, we know how to do it.”
According the report, park maintenance is good overall — but it could use improvement in specific parks.
A series by The New Mexican last summer highlighted a disparity in the conditions of parks, as well.
While some, like the new Southwest Activity Node Park, better known as SWAN Park, on Jaguar Drive, were in very good condition, others had jagged holes in play equipment or overgrown weeds.
Members of the public told Sites Southwest that park maintenance, weeds and pest control were some of their biggest concerns.
The draft recommends the department do away with or simplify park features that are hard to clean or maintain, like potted plants that have to be hand-watered.
The document also suggests training staff or hiring new staff for specific roles, such as a water manager and turf specialist.
Thompson, an arborist himself, said he is hoping to hire or train more specialized staff.
He also wants to revamp park maintenance operations, so parks that get used heavily take priority.
“It’s a two-pronged thing,” Thompson said.
“One is, we have a skill deficit. The other is we need to stratify the park system, so we can efficiently and effectively deliver the required maintenance. The demand is not the same in all parks,” he said.
According to the report, more than half of the residents in City Council Districts 1, 2 and 4 live within a half-mile of a park.
But in District 3, a densely populated area with lots of families, only 15 percent are that close to a park.
“It’s been something that we’ve been aware of for a long time,” said District 3 City Councilor Chris Rivera.
Adding more parks, he said, would allow “neighbors and residents in the south side [to] have the same opportunities and luxuries that many of our other residents throughout Santa Fe have.”
The draft report supports that observation but also cautions that further increasing Santa Fe’s number of parks could be too much for the city’s already stretched park maintenance staff to handle.
As the city grows, Rivera said, most departments are asking for extra funding.
He expects the Parks and Recreation Department to do the same.
“I know they’re stretched thin. They have been for a while,” Rivera said. “I see them. They’re working hard.”
Asked what he’d most like to see in the next 10 years, Griego said his priority is more hands.
“More staff, I would say, just for getting work done and done faster,” Griego said.
And, he quipped, “a raise — of course.”