ABOVE: The equipment at this park on West Belle Vue will be replaced by the city of Fairmont parks department this summer.

FAIRMONT – The opening of Fairmont’s parks has been moved up by a week, as the park department is finishing up projects and getting everything rolling.

Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) is almost completely removed from Fairmont’s parks. Right now, there are only around 10 trees left, though there are numerous stumps that still need to be removed. After working on this for multiple years, Public Works Superintendent Nick Lardy said it helped that they caught a break this winter.

“We’re way ahead of where we originally thought we would be,” he said. “We’re able, with these open winters, to get a lot of that work done instead of plowing snow. We’re actually sitting real well.”

In addition to this, they will also be continuing to plant new trees, replacing the Ash.

“We can only put back so many a year,” Park Foreman Chad Striemer said. “We got to maintain not only the year you plant, but the one to two years prior to keeping them watered so they’re rooted in good. That’s a lot of manpower to keep that all watered and going, especially if you end up with a dry year.

The Sylvania Park Bandshell work has been completed, just in time for its 100th anniversary.

“There was a total reconstruction of the bandshell, put a new roof on,” Lardy said. “That was last year, and then they did some structural repairs, resurfaced and repainted the actual dome of the band shell and the rest of the building and new windows and doors.”

ABOVE: The Sylnavia Park Bandshell in Fairmont is one of several projects the Fairmont parks department has wrapped up ahead of the summer season.

This work was planned out ahead of time and completed on schedule, to line up with the anniversary. When it comes to planning out different project schedules and stages of completion, Lardy said there are several factors to getting it done.

“Budget, if you got the money to do it,” he said. “Second things, if we got the help to do it. The last thing is, we need to have it done before parks open.”

The next park in line to have its equipment upgraded is West Belle Vue, which is meant to arrive soon and will be installed by the parks department.

“The small playground there is an old slide, and it just needs to be updated,” Lardy said. “The city of Fairmont the past several years has been upgrading parks with new equipment, and it just finally fell into the schedule to get that park replaced for equipment.”

Generally, a focus of the parks department is retaining and recruiting summer help to maintain the parks in their best condition. This year is the first exception in Lardy’s tenure.

“The first time since I’ve been here, we had all eight of our last year’s summer workers coming back,” he said. “That saves a lot of time for hiring and interviewing.”

Now, the focus turns to cleaning up the odds and ends of projects and maintenance to keep parks ready for any and all visitors. Lardy said his goal is to keep the parks as clean and nice as possible for everybody to enjoy them.

For more information, concerns, or ideas, email Nick Lardy at nlardy@fairmont.org.