City’s Parks and Trails director set to retire after lengthy career
Jean Wallace’s touches are virtually everywhere in the Spa City.
From the petunia-filled hanging baskets that line Central Avenue across from Bathhouse Row to the white oak trees that shade Convention Boulevard, which sprouted from acorns Wallace gathered one autumn from her yard.
There is the butterfly garden, filled with colorful flowers, on the greenway, a network of trails that snakes alongside Hot Springs Creek. In late summer, medians around Grand Avenue become burgundy islands of amaranth, a plant Wallace propagated nearly 30 years ago when she landed an entry level job with the City of
Hot Springs as a landscape maintenance supervisor.
At the time, she was in charge of a crew of three men and two lawnmowers.
Almost three decades later, Wallace is retiring as the director of the Hot Springs Parks and Trails Department with a retirement party to be held 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Friday at City Hall, 133 Convention Blvd.
It is a department, and a position, that did not exist when she first started her job in 1989. Shortly after city officials decided to create the department in the nineties, Wallace, who studied agriculture and horticulture at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, was tapped to lead it.
Wallace’s family lived in Hot Springs for generations. She returned to the Spa City to raise her own family and to start a business, which eventually led to her role as the community’s chief gardener, groundskeeper and advocate for conservation and increased green space.
Under Wallace’s directorship, the Parks and Trails Department blossomed. The department now has over a dozen employees, has secured more than $5 million in grants and has won more than 40 state, regional and national awards.
“I hit the ground running and have not looked back, other than to marvel at what our department has accomplished as a team,” Wallace told the Sentinel Record.“When you stop and take a breath and look back, then you realize what has been built.”
What has been built during Wallace’s tenure has fundamentally transformed Hot Springs, which now has more public green space and trails than ever before. The city has 19 parks, 17 of which are directly managed by Wallace’s department. (When Wallace first started working for the city, only nine parks existed.)
A few notable projects include the near-completion of the Hot Springs Creek Greenway, a 4.2-mile network of trails and parks that will connect the city’s downtown area to Lake Hamilton. Only a small portion of the greenway has yet to be finished. Entergy Park, a 30-acre project on the banks of Lake Hamilton, received national recognition for its design, in particular its focus on conservation.
Wallace spearheaded the construction of Hot Springs Farmers Market, ensuring the project was finished on time and on budget. She also oversaw the completion of the Valley Street Skate Park and Jonestown Park on Hobson Avenue. Her department plants 30,000 flowers and other greenery annually. It also installs over a million holiday lights every year downtown.
Under her leadership, Hot Springs conducted a green infrastructure landscape study that maps and catalogues natural assets in the city and creates a plan for conserving them for future generations.
“Connections to parks, to watersheds, all of that open space and green infrastructure, it will save cities money in the long run and will provide quality of life benefits for citizens and visitors as well as health benefits,” Wallace said. “That whole natural cycle concept was the keystone to the evolution of the way this department has grown over the past 29 years.”
But Wallace says she could not have accomplished all that she has with the Parks and Trails Department without the support of the community. Operating on a shoestring budget, the department has not only won grants but also received thousands of hours of volunteer work and financial as well as material support from people who live in Hot Springs.
“The job is a combination of storytelling and getting people believing in a reason to participate,” she said. “Helping people see an avenue to enact dreams and hopes for the future.”
Hot Spring’s Arts Advisory Committee, for example, helped secure funding for art and helped curate exhibits, such as outdoor sculpture gardens. Friends of the Parks, a local nonprofit, also contributed to the development of and funding for various projects. The Hot Springs Parks and Trails Advisory Committee advises policy and budgets for development and maintenance.
“There is a recurring theme, and it is community support and investment,” Wallace said. “When the community invests in park projects, the community is connected to the parks. They are the supporters. That is what makes the world go around in our world.”
As for what is next, Wallace says she is going to spend more time with her family, travel more, and, of course, spend more time tending to her own garden.
“My work will never be done here,” she said. “But this part of my work is finished. I am happy and I am honored for helping us get to this moment because the future is bright. We just don’t need to lose sight of our opportunities, and we always need to plan ahead.”