The City of Rawlins Parks Division is currently understaffed due to difficulties in finding seasonal workers. Seasonal workers typically make up half of the Parks workforce during the summer season, but thus far, we have only been able to hire two out of five positions, both in late June.
The Parks Division was also restricted on water usage throughout the spring to allow for enough water for the Pretreatment Plant wet run in May and the tank inspections last week, as well as to provide more water for residential irrigation. This included no watering at the cemetery until this week, and most parks were limited to an equivalent volume of two days per week until June 12th.
The largest impacts of this staff shortage and limited watering schedule will likely be seen in the following areas:
- Prolonged time to start of irrigation systems due to less staff available to replace sprinkler heads and repair any breaks that occurred over the winter
- Turf less frequently mowed at the parks
- Green belts on Spruce and Cedar less frequently mowed and string trimmed
- Cemetery will only be able to be watered deeply once per week since it is watered manually and takes 25-30 work hours to water all zones.
- Slower response to sprinkler issues, such as broken heads. Please call in any issues that you see to the Rawlins Family Recreation Center at 307-324-7529
- Sports fields have remained a priority during their seasons to allow for player safety and game playability.
- Limited watering in the spring was rough on the turf, although the rainy spring was very helpful. All parks/green spaces were allowed their complete watering schedule (equivalent volume of watering three days per week) as of June 12th, and the cemetery is allowed to begin the process of irrigating at the cemetery this week.
Our Parks Division is responsible for the maintenance of parks (including cleaning restrooms), green spaces, walking path, cemetery, downtown trash removal and tree watering, and landscaping/snow removal at city facilities.
Interested in receiving news from the City? Sign up for news via email or text at www.rawlinswy.gov/notifyme under “City of Rawlins News.” For more information, please contact Mira Miller, City of Rawlins Community Relations/PIO, at 307-328-4500 ext. 1022.
Image: Community Development and Parks & Recreation staff held a special cemetery clean-up in mid-May
