A lot of resources go into maintaining city parks

Employees of the Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department spend a lot of time and energy maintaining the city’s parks and ballfields. Two employees are pictured at the Cat Island Park as they scatter mulch on the playground.

 By Rebecca Pierson
  ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
rpierson@starhq.com
  The Elizabethton Parks and Recreation Department spends a lot of their time, effort and energy maintaining the facilities in the city so that everyone can enjoy them. But a lot of their efforts go unnoticed in all of the small things that they do.
  "The past couple of years, the main thing we have been focusing on is maintaining what we have," Mike Mains, the director of Elizabethton Parks and Recreation, said. "What has happened is, during the down times with the economy, we haven't had a lot of big capital projects where we have gone and built a shelter or built a bathroom facility at a park. We haven't been able to do that just because of funding. We have just been focused on maintaining what we've got."
  Including the day-to-day maintenance such as trash pickup, mowing and other necessary jobs, the Parks and Recreation Department are hoping that in the near future they can take on some much needed projects that have been hanging in the balance.
  "There are certain things we need to do," Mains said about improvements in the future. "We know for sure that there will be new facilities built down the road or there will be projects that we will need to look at. There is continuous work weekly just to maintain what we have.
  "We spend a lot of money for the chemicals that we spray onto the outfields to enhance the grass," Mains said. "Most parents don't see it because they are not around. We top dress our fields with soil conditioners and clay. The two little league fields are in great shape thanks to the volunteers that help us out. Most of the funding came from the programs, but our staff helped them. Roundup cost quite a bit. It is the little things like that that makes the parks look good. We hope to stain and paint the pavilions soon. It takes time and planning to make sure that things look good."
  What the city has is nine parks that are under the maintenance of the Parks and Recreation with other parks being maintained by the street department.
  At Harmon Park/Chamber of Commerce during this past year, the staff continued to maintain the two pavilions, playground equipment and walking trail. Joe LaPorte Junior Recreation Area and Franklin Pool is another park that lies under the responsibility of the Parks and Rec, which also includes two tennis courts for use.
  Kiwanis Park includes two pavilions, one soccer/football athletic field, one outdoor basketball court and playground equipment. Douglas Park also includes an outdoor basketball court and playground equipment, along with one pavilion and one youth baseball field.
  Riverside Park includes playground equipment, horseshoe courts and one pavilion that must be rented.
  At the Carmon Dugger Sports Complex, there is a minor league baseball field and a women's softball field.
  The biggest improvements this year was to Joe O'Brien Field where a much overdue new lighting system was installed and the field received a new scoreboard courtesy of Pepsi.
  Cat Island Park has had upgrades with new playground equipment. A new baseball field was constructed for the American Little League. Volunteers from the American Little League along with the Park and Rec staff worked together on this project.
  The National Little League also teamed up with the Parks and Rec to continue making improvements to the two athletic fields at Lions Field.
  At the Elizabethton Recreation Center, several improvements were made to meeting rooms that are available for public use. The Center has also opened up its doors to walkers who wish to get their exercise out of the wintery weather.
  "We will have 50 walkers or more at a time here in the gym when the weather is bad," Mains said.
  Future projects that the Parks and Recreation Department would like to take on is a new bathroom facility at the Kiwanis Park. A skatepark has also been on the agenda. Completion of the Linear Path is also a priority. There are new scoreboards coming for the men's softball field and at the recreation center that will need to be installed. New fencing at Carmon Park is also a project that is sorely needed.
  The athletics department also now has a Web site where they post information on their programs and athletic information. You can access the site at http://parkandrec13.tripod.com/index.html.
  For more information on any of the facilities, please call 542-1508.