ABOVE: This white arbor stands at the center of Lincoln Park with flowers on one side and benches on the other. The arbor was one of the central projects completed this summer by the parks department as it’s a big hit with wedding venue seekers.

FAIRMONT – This summer season goes into the books as another of growth and improvement for the Fairmont Parks.

Public Works Superintendent Nick Lardy said the name of the game is to make the parks as nice, clean and usable as possible for the public. The biggest challenge they ran into this year was the amount of mowing.

“Due to all the rain, we had pretty much three to four employees busy all day, every day, since we started mowing,” Lardy said.

Typically, they would start out with that many and dwindle into July, freeing up workers to focus on other projects. This year, Lardy said he has had to keep staffing up in that area the whole summer.

“We had to defer some painting and other items like that, just due to not having the staff to do it. We’re also down a guy pretty much all summer. That puts a lot of work on the extra guys to keep up and maintain that same level of service the public expects.”

Even with those circumstances, Lardy said they were able to do really well.

“You can only do what you can with what you have,” he said. “Some things we had to let slip a little bit and come back and try to hit them a little later. The guys did a great job keeping up with everything like they always do.”

The big project they had this year was rebuilding the large arbor at Lincoln which was damaged in a vehicular accident. They also planted 4,000 flowers throughout the parks and worked on removing emerald ash borer trees. Throughout all of it, Lardy said they minimized disruption of the park-going experience.

“Lincoln Park was light for wedding reservations this summer,” he said. “That could have been due to the arbor being gone, but we don’t know that [for sure].”

It was beneficial to have the summer program back for another year, with nine high school and college students assisting in general work.

“They are awesome to have,” Lardy said. “They get a lot of behind-the-scenes work done. A lot of trimming and mowing in the off areas. They’re really great for walking parks every day and picking up sticks and trash and what have you.”

Hearing from community members, Lardy said they generally received good comments.

“Every once in a while, something slips and it’s brought to our attention,” he said. “We go out and hit it immediately to rectify the situation. All in all, I’ve had great comments. People are amazed at how nice our parks are.”

Looking forward, Lardy said this fall and winter are going to be focused primarily on ash tree removal. Work has been done for three years to remove all ash trees from city land, and by the end of this winter, Lardy said the remaining 80 to 90 ash trees will be gone for good.

“Then we’ll be able to get out in the parks and do some more maintenance on some buildings, painting, probably some trim replacement,” he said. “Normal maintenance items that we’ll be able to tackle a little better.”

Work is also being done on the north parking lot by the Budd Lake boat landing at Gomsrud Park. Lardy said the boat ramp planks have been removed and replaced with new ones. That lot will not be usable until it is completed in November, but the lot east of the shelter and the big gravel parking lot are still accessible.

Park facilities will officially close Oct. 15, but the parks themselves can be walked through year-round.

For more information or to report any park issues, email nlardy@fairmont.org or call (507) 235-9330.