2022 Parks Annual Report

Parks Department Annual Report CITY

PARKS DEPARTMENT

END OF YEAR REPORT 2022

Bill Mitchison – Parks Director

INTRODUCTION

To enrich the quality of life through People, Parks and Recreation and remain one of the premier parks and recreation destinations within the greater St. Louis area and the

The O’Fallon Parks Department is composed of two divisions that work together to provide vital services to O’Fallon’s residents and businesses.

Landscape Division 314.581.3147

Parks Division 636.379.5610

The Landscape Division is responsible for the year-round appearance of key properties within the City. This Division designs, plants, and maintains the floral beds, container plantings, flowering shrubs, trees, lawns, interior plants and all other horticultural highlights at municipal parks and grounds, highway overpasses and some right-of-ways. Landscape staff also produces plants in the City’s greenhouse and operates a small nursery.

The Landscape Division handles Tree City USA recognition status and the Commemorative Tree & Bench Program. Community education is provided by Landscape staff members through numerous telephone and e-mail inquiries throughout the year.

The Parks Division is responsible for the year-round appearance seven days a week of eight park properties within the City. This Division maintains athletic fields, recreational courts, CarShield Field, playgrounds, Lake Whetsel, trails, and other park amenities.

The Park Division handles construction projects that take place in the Parks with its Special Projects team. They install may of the park amenities such as playgrounds, recreational courts, pavilions, custom fabrication, and concrete work.

The Park division also supports the Tourism and Festivals Division by providing support for all set up/removal and maintaining of park grounds during Special Events, such as food trucks events, Celebration of Lights, Jammin’ Concerts, Tree Lighting Ceremony, Heritage & Freedom Fest, just to name a few.

DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION CHART

Landscape Division

Landscape Superintendent

Landscape Supervisor

Horticulture Specialist (3)

Maintenance Worker I (2)

Parks Superintendent

Parks Division

Parks Maintenance Supervisor (2)

Park Maintenance Crew Leader (7)

Park Maintenance Worker 1 (14)

Small Engine Technician

Budget and Procurement Coordinator

PARKS & RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board consists of eight members appointed by the Mayor with City Council approval. This Board is intended primarily to offer to the Mayor and City Council both a user's special focus and a citizen's perspective to augment City staff expertise on matters dealing with parks and recreation activities as the Mayor and Council allocate funds and set City priorities.

Committee Members

Councilmember Nathan Bibb (liaison)

Joanie Kruep (ward 1)

Amanda Paul, Vice President (ward 3)

Open (ward 5)

Theresa Williams (at large)

Scott Hester, President (ward 2)

Dave Goewert (ward 4)

Kathy Wilson (at large)

Greg Cartee (at large)

(Left to right) City Council Liaison Councilmember Nathan Bibb, Amanda Paul, Kathy Wilson, Scott Hester, Greg Cartee, Theresa Williams, and Dave Goewert

Not pictured is Joanie Kruep

LANDSCAPE DIVISION

Scope of Responsibility

The Landscape Division is responsible for the yearround appearance of key properties within the City. This Division designs, plants, and maintains the floral beds, container plantings, flowering shrubs, trees, lawns, interior plants and all other horticultural highlights at municipal parks and grounds, highway overpasses and some right-of-ways. Landscape staff also produces plants in the City’s greenhouse and operates a small nursery.

The Landscape Division handles Tree City USA recognition status and the Commemorative Tree & Bench Program. Community education is provided by Landscape staff members through numerous telephone and e-mail inquiries throughout the year.

Organizational Chart

The Landscape Division adds eleven seasonal employees as spring and summer arrive. Seasonal staff works alongside full-time staff for mowing, landscape bed maintenance, and watering.

Performance Measures in 2022

Below is the Landscape Division performance measures chart. The performance measures chart is updated annually for the budget book using the original categories to maintain consistent measures, but there are other responsibilities at play in addition to the five categories as outlined below in the chart.

Some Performance Measures for 2022 in the chart below are significantly higher than in years past. For example, Number of Perennials Planted for 2022 is 7,000 plants. This high number is due to adding perennial plants to O’Day Park with grant funds from the Missouri Department of Conservation. Using grant funds then allowed operating funds to add more perennial plants to the Krekel Center landscape at Civic Park. In addition, the numbers are higher since we are improving our practice at having smaller plants survive. Therefore, we are able to purchase more perennial plants without increasing the operating budget. Success with smaller plants has also improved our strategy with the number of shrub plants established each year.

Service Descriptions

Landscape Mowing

The Landscape Division has a dedicated mowing team to mow landscape lawns throughout the city on a weekly basis. The landscape mowing team makes thirty-six mowings per year beginning in the month of March through early December. The months of November and December also involve extensive leaf cleanup on the mowed properties. The weekly mowing involves thirty-five acres per week of mowing straight lines, checkerboard patterns, string trimming, and litter picks. By the end of the season the mowing team will have mowed and detailed 1,260 acres of landscape lawns, equaling nearly two square miles of continuous mowing, or equaling mowing your home lawn every week for 150 years. The landscape lawns are at City Hall & Senior Center, CarShield Stadium, Renaud Center, Justice Center, K & DD clip sites, Veterans Memorial Walk, and some various small assignments.

The Landscape Division provides support for O’Fallon’s Code Enforcement Team. When Code Enforcement secures a warrant, the Landscape mowing team arrives at the address to mow, trim, and clean up the property to bring the property up to the standard of the surrounding area. These remediation assignments are mainly through the growing season but occasionally there are assignments in winter months to correct tree problems.

Right-of-Way Mowing

The Landscape Division also has a mowing team dedicated to mowing various city properties and designated right-of-ways. The three-man right-of-way mowing team makes 104 stops on a two-week rotation. The list includes water and sewer properties such as the clean water and wastewater treatment plants, water towers, wells, and lift stations. The rotation list also includes street department facilities, environmental services headquarters, highway overpasses such as K & I-70, Woodlawn, and Sonderen, lengthy stretches of arterial roadways such as Bryan, Mexico, and Feise roads, and various small stretches through O’Fallon’s roadways. By the end of the eight-month season, the right-of-way mowing team will have mowed 900 acres and 462 miles of roadside grass areas throughout O'Fallon, burning 1,238 gallons of gasoline or about 2.5 years of fill ups for the family car.

Greenhouse Operation and Annual Flower Production

The Landscape Division staff produces 16,000 annual flowers in the greenhouse for spring planting. These annual flowers provide colorful flower displays through the summer at City Hall and the 911 Memorial, CarShield Stadium, Renaud Center, Justice Center, K and DD clip sites, Veterans Memorial Walk, Civic Park, and in the planters on Legacy Point, and for the hanging baskets on Main Street.

Annual flower production underway in O’Fallon’s greenhouse.

Annual flower crop in mid-April, ready to transplant into flower beds of O’Fallon.

Trees

The Landscape Division staff cares for trees in parks, trees on municipal properties, and trees planted along Sonderen, Woodlawn, Bryan, Mexico, and Feise roads. The tree care program consists of planting new trees, treating specific trees with insecticides, trimming and dead-wooding trees, and removing dead trees.

Removing dead trees has been a particularly large undertaking in the past three to five years due to an insect problem referred to as the emerald ash borer. O'Fallon was responsible for 247 ash trees on municipal properties Nearly all of the 247 ash trees have been removed in the past five years with only a few remaining to be removed in the next two or three years. Below is a graph showing the rate of tree loss due to the emerald ash borer which proved to be fairly accurate as we have worked our way through the years plotted on the graph.

The graph above shows the rate of ash tree loss in the ten years after Emerald Ash Borer is first detected.

Just as our O’Fallon community is reaching the end of the emerald ash borer problem, we are now faced with an insect problem on pin oak trees known as the horned oak gall. The horned galls on the pin oak trees are created by an insect which, in a fairly short time of five years, are killing massively large pin oak trees in the older subdivisions of our O'Fallon community. Pin oak trees that have survived adversities for the last 120 years or more are surrendering to the horned oak gall Civic Park and Westhoff Park have large pin oak trees that will fall victim to the horned oak gall infestations of the next five years.

The Landscape Division team removing dead oak trees on Horned Gall on Pin Oak tree branches. Firma Rd.at the wastewater treatment plant.

Tree City USA

Tree City USA is a nationwide program sponsored by the Arbor Day Foundation that recognizes municipalities across the United States having a dedicated program for the management and cultivation of trees in the community. The Landscape Division successfully established O'Fallon in the Tree City USA program for the first year in 2004 O'Fallon has since remained committed to being successfully recognized as a tree city USA every year since 2004. O'Fallon now has 19 consecutive years with Tree City USA status

Commemorative Tree & Bench Program

The Landscape Division administers the Commemorative Tree & Bench Program. The program allows individuals to plant a tree or install a bench at various parks and municipal properties to commemorate an individual’s memory, birth, anniversary, or significant event.

Landscape Beds

The Landscape Division Horticulture Specialist staff of three, cares for landscape beds on every municipal property. A simple way to identify what is under the Landscape Division’s care is, “If it has mulch then the Landscape Division takes care of it.” Landscape beds, covering nearly ten acres total, are areas of mulch filled with flowering shrubs, ornamental grass, perennial flowers, and annual flowers and can be found in every park, along highways, in parking lots, and at every municipal property throughout O'Fallon.

Our team of three Horticulture Specialists are each assigned to certain properties throughout the city which we refer to as a section. Each Horticulture Specialist applies their knowledge to care for the landscape beds in their section. Understanding the needs of the flowering shrubs and ornamental grasses, such as pruning and shearing, and scouting for pest problems is a large portion of landscape bed care

Secondly, significant components of caring for perennial flower landscape bed plantings include understanding the needs of perennial flowering plants which coincides with their life cycle through the changing seasons. In addition to propagation and transplanting, prime examples of perennial beds would be the Alligators Creek Aquatic Center and the Krekel Center landscapes at Civic Park.

Landscape beds at the K CLIP site at I-64 & Hwy K.

Flowering hydrangea shrubs at CarShield Field Stadium

Perennial flowers in the landscape bed surrounding the put on a summer show during the baseball season. Krekel Center.

Thirdly, each Horticulture Specialist is attentive to the needs of our annual flower beds which are planted in late April and provide colorful displays until the first frost of late October or early November. The annual flower displays require a good deal of horticultural “green thumb” skill in understanding fertilization and particularly irrigation needs, and occasionally some disease and insect control.

Irrigation

Irrigation systems are an important piece of equipment in caring for the landscapes across O'Fallon. The Landscape Division cares for fifteen irrigation systems that keep flower displays and lawns looking their best. The irrigation systems are pressurized in April before spring flower planting, and the systems are shut down and winterized in November before Thanksgiving During the months of operation, the Horticultural Specialist team monitors irrigation needs and regularly adjust irrigation run times and active days to maintain the proper balance of root zone moisture for landscape beds and lawns. The irrigation systems are regularly monitored for sprinkler performance and the mowing team always has a watchful eye for system leaks.

A colorful display of annual flowers the Renaud Center.

Controlling weed growth is an ongoing activity for grooming the landscape beds. The Horticulture Specialists use multiple means of controlling weeds, but mulch is the first defense in the weed battle. The Landscape Division uses twenty tractor trailer loads of mulch through the season. When the summer seasonal staff members arrive, a crew of four to six depart every morning to work through every O'Fallon property applying a fresh coat of mulch to landscape beds and tree rings.

The second strategy for controlling weeds in landscape beds is making an application of preemergent herbicide in mid spring. A pre-emergent herbicide uses chemistry to kill the germinating weed seed. This prevention of a seed from establishing itself gives the Landscape Division a competitive edge against the monthly reoccurring weed crop

And the 4th strategy for weed control his oldfashioned hand pulling and digging. There are occasions when we are not able to keep up with the rate of weed growth and an assault team armed with shovels is dispatched. It's not a surprise that the battle for controlling weeds reaches such a high level because as we are creating ideal conditions for plant growth for our favored plants, we are simultaneously creating ideal conditions for weed growth

The 3rd strategy for weed control is to use a post emergent herbicide in which staff members use backpack sprayers to make a chemical application directly to the foliage of the weed growth. This method always carries some risk in that some of our plants get hit with “friendly fire” from these spray applications.

One tractor trailer load of mulch

Hanging Baskets

The hanging basket displays on Main Street are a favorite with local residents and businesses. The Landscape Division hangs fifty-four baskets on twenty-seven light poles on Main Street and eager individuals begin to inquire during the winter months, “What will the baskets be like this year?” We receive numerous phone calls through the summer as the baskets develop into large colorful displays and we typically get two or three inquiries as to purchasing the baskets at the end of the season. In addition to the Main Street baskets, the Landscape Division also cares for thirteen wall baskets at CarShield Field.

Volunteers

The Landscape Division provides an annual opportunity for volunteers to make their contribution to the community. The Earth Day flower planting in the spring provides a platform for 75 volunteers to plant about 7,000 flowers on a Saturday.

Volunteers are also used for large mulching projects using about 100 or more people and for removal of the frostbitten flowers in late October for Make A Difference Day, when another 75 volunteers arrive

2022 Highlights & Accomplishments

Prairie Development at O’Day Park

At O’Day park, the Landscape Staff has restored some areas with plants that would be found on Missouri prairies. These prairie plants fill an important role in Missouri’s ecosystem. Missouri prairies support a vast diversity of small animal life, which would be easy to find at O’Day Park, such as abundant insect populations, such as butterflies, small mammals like voles and field mice, but also other species such as frogs and toads, and although not everyone’s favorite, snakes are important in the ecosystem. Also, the prairies support a vast number of songbirds and raptors, and of course some larger mammals, such as rabbits, groundhogs, and deer.

The O’Day Park prairie project has been in development for more than three years. Landscape Staff focused on planting the flowering plants first. The flowering plants are known as forbs, and the forbs are perennial plants. Typically, when you grow perennials, you refer to the old adage sleep, creep, and leap. This adage refers to the length of time a perennial plant needs to become fully established. The first year they “sleep” as if nothing is happening. The second year, they “creep” typically growing underground. And the third year they “leap” because now the plants have established themselves and really begin to put on a show. So, the three-year development of our O’Day prairies with the forbs first is an important part of allowing the flowering plants to establish before we added prairie grasses in June of 2022. The season of 2023 will be the first growing season where all of the species are thriving together, and this ecosystem created by the prairie plantings will actually begin to duplicate the prairie systems across Missouri from 200 years ago.

Every month of the growing season from April through November will allow you to find a new batch of flowers in the O’Day prairies.

Prairie forbs developing into a “Carpet of Flowers” at O’Day Park.

PARKS DIVISION

Scope of Responsibility

The Parks Division is responsible for the year-round maintenance of eight park properties and their appearance seven days a week within the City. This Division maintains athletic fields, recreational courts, CarShield Field, playgrounds, Lake Whetsel, trails, and other park amenities.

The Park Division handles construction projects that take place in the Parks with its Special Projects team. Special Projects installs many of the park amenities such as playgrounds, recreational courts, pavilions, custom fabrication, and concrete work.

The division also supports the Tourism and Festivals Division by providing the support team for all set up/removal and maintaining of park grounds during Special Events.

Areas of Responsibility

CarShield Field

Civic Park

Dames Park

Fort Zumwalt Park

Knaust Park

O’Day Park

Ozzie Smith Spots Complex Sports Park

Westhoff Park

Small Engine & Equipment Repair

Special Projects – Construction Team

Irrigation/Backflow Preventer Equipment & Repair

Certification and Licenses

Among all the 25 Park Personnel they hold 4 licenses and/or certifications.

2 Certified Playground Safety Inspector Certification

1 Missouri Backflow Prevention Tester

1 Certified Pool Operator

1 Certified Park and Recreation Professional

Passive Parks

Passive Parks – The department maintains the City’s four passive parks, Civic Park, Fort Zumwalt Park, Knaust Park and O’Day Park. The team maintains amenities such as Lake Whetsel, playgrounds, water features /splash pads, trails, camping, fishing, a disc golf course and roller hockey and basketball courts. Our passive parks have some of our more serene settings with five rentable pavilions. The passive parks are host to many special events such as the O’Fallon Jammin’ Concert Series at Civic Park, Celebration of Lights at Fort Zumwalt Park, and various special events at O’Day Park.

Athletic Parks

Athletic Park – The department maintains four athletic parks, Dames Park, Ozzie Smith Sports Complex, Westhoff Park and Sports Park consisting of baseball/softball fields, soccer fields, Cricket and Lacrosse. Other amenities you will find in these parks are volleyball, horseshoes, tennis, basketball, roller hockey, basketball, pickleball and 6 rentable pavilions. These parks are host to many tournaments and recreational programs. Ozzie Smith Sports Complex is host to the most notable special event, the City’s annual Heritage & Freedom Festival. The teams in these parks perform a high volume of field maintenance to keep up with the demand of recreational activities.

Performance Measures

Note: Football and Soccer Performance Measurements were switched from # of leagues in 2017-2019 to # of games to match how baseball/softball is tracked.

Labor Hours Explained

• Overall, the 2022 totals are consistent with past years with minor adjustments up or down over 2021 totals. The weather each year has a direct influence on where the labor hours are spent.

• Labor for snow removal was up due to the meaningful snow events we experienced.

• COL labor hours were up because additional staff were needed at times due to the needs of Tourism and Festivals for this event.

• Preparations for special events are more than double our 2021 total. This is due to the needs of Tourism and Festivals as well as it being stressed with park staff to accurately record tasks they are completing for Tourism and Festivals.

Park Services Personnel

(from left to right)

Jeff Boerding – Parks Maintenance Supervisor

Jeremy Wolfmeyer – Park Superintendent

Donna Pinkston – Budget and Procurement Coordinator

Tim Snyders – Park Maintenance Supervisor

Fort Zumwalt Park, Civic Park & Knaust Park

(from left to right) Mike Reigh and Jack Prinster

O’Day Park

(from left to right) James Robertson and Jeremy Roderique

Ozzie Smith Sports Complex and Westhoff Park

(from left to right) Justin Rivet, Bryan Reitmeyer, Nick Dunn, Tyler Fennewald and Eric Duffner

Sports Park

(from left to right) David Baxter, Josh Lay, Tony Bizelli and Brian Krafft

Dames Park

(from left to right) Luke Bornhop and Zack Miller

Special Projects – Construction Team

Special Projects – This team is responsible for the majority of the construction projects in our parks. The work you will find them performing includes: Concrete slabs, curbs, sidewalks, parking lots, playground install /repair, roofing /siding, any needed metal fabrication. To sum it up, they take care of the infrastructure projects in the parks.

(from left to right) Eric Beard, Drew Iler, Kyle DeWald, and Logan Barklage

Small Engine Technician

Small Engine Technician – Our Small Engine Technician keeps the department rolling. This position performs all preventive maintenance and repairs on the equipment the department operates. Responsibilities that fall under this position include: weed eaters, blowers, mowers, trailers, tractors, tires, tune-ups, rebuild of equipment, electrical repairs, maintenance software and the monitoring of the department’s fuel pumps.

Bobby Meyers

Park Maintenance Crew Leader – Irrigation

Irrigation – Our irrigation is maintained by a Park Maintenance Crew Leader. Irrigation is vital to the condition of our park system. The department is responsible for 11 irrigation systems that keep our turf thriving through the growing season. Both irrigation systems at Sport Park obtains its water from 1,000 feet deep wells O’Day Park has a unique water recapturing system to utilize the water from the water feature to irrigate the grass in over half of the park. In addition, this position is a certified backflow preventer tester, maintaining and checking over 50 backflows on an annual basis.

Brian Hawkins

• Dames Park

2022 Notable Accomplishments

o Refurbishment of field one’s football goal posts

o Removal of flood sediment around the roadway and reestablishing of the turf.

o Scoreboard improvements.

o Summer Maintenance on athletic fields.

• Westhoff Park

o Installed automatic security locks on all facilities.

o Installed new fencing around Brendan’s Playground.

o Repaired and reenforced creek bank where water line runs to the shed.

o Westhoff Shop renovation.

o Added golf cart parking.

• Sports Park

o Irrigation improvements with VFD install on phase one well and phase 2 valve replacements.

o Court coloring of pickle ball and basketball courts.

o Summer maintenance on soccer fields.

o Completed roadway and parking lot maintenance.

o Added golf cart parking.

o Completed concrete renovations around phase one concession stand.

o Tin roofs added to pavilions.

o Replacement playground installed at Renaud Center.

• Ozzie Smith Sports Complex

o Added concrete curbs, new fence fabric, and yellow fence cap to field F.

o Field A infield renovation.

o Added parking extension to better accommodate Heritage & Freedom Fest.

o Hosted Heritage & Freedom Fest.

o Summer athletic field maintenance.

o Hosted 15 tournaments.

• Fort Zumwalt Park

o Installation and removal of the Celebration of Lights display.

o Dead tree removal.

o Dirt work around roadway and below the dam.

o Tree line clean up along Veterans Memorial Parkway.

o Parking lot and roadway striping.

• Civic Park

o Removed several dead trees with stump grinding.

o Striped parking lots.

• Knaust Park

o Parking lot sealed/striped.

• O’Day Park

o Dead tree removal.

o Striped parking lots.

o Improvements made to water feature recapturing system.

o Maintained trails.

• CarShield Field

o Completed curb project on parking lot.

o Replaced three exterior steel doors and frames.

o Painted railings throughout the facility.

o Scoreboard improvements.

o Hosted Concert

• Irrigation

o Improved irrigation throughout the park system. Having a dedicated irrigation Crew Leader has allowed for the Department to improve repairs made to irrigation systems.

o Crew Leader was successfully relicensed to test backflow preventers.

PARKS DIRECTOR