FAIRMONT– The city of Fairmont has a combined 27 parks or green areas that are maintained during all times of the year. The parks or areas were officially reopened Tuesday.

Each park has different processes to open up. All parks are winterized when it comes to plumbing, the water is turned off in the bathrooms and shelter houses, and taking tables to the storage unit.

In Spring the tables are brought out, the plumbing is fixed and put back together, the water is turned back on. Each individual park has a particular process for reopening. For example, Gomsrud Park includes the work listed above, but also installing docks and putting up volleyball nets. Another example is the Fairmont Soccer Complex when it comes to bringing out the bleachers, mowing the grass, and making sure the bathrooms and water are turned on.

Work during the summer and springtime to maintain the parks includes painting, regular cleaning, building evaluations that Streets and Parks Superintendent Nick Lardy runs once a year. The reasoning behind it is to look for things such as shingles or siding work to put that on next year’s budget. Lardy said that an example is at Ward Park where the parks had work recreating bathroom stalls and sprucing things up with shingle and siding work. Each year, the city picks out one park every year for a big project.

Lardy visualizes that traffic flow will be really busy especially at Gomsrud Park. Gomsrud Park has a newer playground that Lardy said has seen people playing at the park in the winter and boating traffic. Lardy also said that he expects Lincoln Park to also be utilized for people walking and viewing the flowers and that weddings have been planned.

When asked about what he looks forward to the most when it comes to opening the parks was that Lardy said it’s the season and the process of opening and preparing for the summer.

Lardy wanted to tell the community that the city of Fairmont has many nice parks and they are available to use.

“Use them, respect them and keep them clean,” Lardy said. “One of the biggest things is to take care of it and that it is everybody’s park so come out and use them. If anybody sees any issues let us know, call City Hall, or call me.”