ABOVE: New workers of the Fairmont Parks Department, Josh Bergt and Haden Toomer, plant flowers along Wards Park on Lake Sisseton with the help of Jacob Crissinger and City Forester Chad Striemer (both unpictured). Photo by Vanessa Schultze.

FAIRMONT – The summer months are providing teens and college students the chance to keep Fairmont’s parks clean.

Eight seasonal positions are available every summer in the Park Department. Superintendent of Streets and Parks Nick Lardy said these workers assist in various areas.

“We got one that helps out at the Winnebago softball complex,” he said. “Many of them are out in the parks doing the weed whipping, picking up trash, pulling weeds and making the parks look nice. We do have some small parks we mow with a push mower. There are several of them around town they take care of. They do a lot of the lake shore clean up on the city property.”

This includes hanging, watering, taking down plants around town and maintaining the city flower beds.

Workers can do the job for up to 100 days, typically lasting from the start to the end of summer vacation. While the position isn’t specifically for college and high school students, Lardy said there’s a reason they are the most common applicants.

“It’s perfect for a college student,” he said. “They got the summers off, they can come home, work 40 hours a week, get a good wage. The starting wage is $15 an hour for 2025. It’s also the same for the high school students. They’re the ones where the parents are saying ‘You need to go out and do something this summer.’ It’s the perfect job for that.”

By having these seasonal employees, Lardy said it can help them get ahead in certain situations.

“This year, with our mild winter, weeds were coming up quicker,” he said. “A lot of that was happening before our seasonal employees were on board, so we had to play catch up. They’re the ones that jump in and take care of them.”

Having mainly high school and college students in these positions also means it is the first job for many of them. Job skills necessary for later careers are the biggest takeaways Lardy has seen in his seasonal employees.

“They come in at a certain time and work eight hours,” he said. “It trains the new worker how to function in the working world. They get a realization of what it’s really like.”

This also means the added responsibility of showing the ropes to people new to the working world. Lardy said they also have people who return for several years while in school, of which there are three this year.

Overall, Lardy said these positions are vital in making the parks system as neat and safe as possible.

“The first thing you’d see [without seasonal workers] is the parks wouldn’t look as clean and tidy as they do,” he said. “Just weed whipping makes it look nice when our full-time guys are chasing around, trying to cut the grass with their mowers and not taking the time to trim. It shows. It doesn’t look good.”