Staff outlines tree plantings, fountain repairs, volunteer events and disc-golf growth

Parks staff delivered several operations and programming updates at the March 10 meeting.

Sean (speaker 2) reported the city’s renewal of its "Trees in the USA" status and announced an Earth Day volunteer planting on April 22 at Crowley Park with 55-gallon trees. He said contractor commitments have resulted in additional plantings at Point North Park and along the winter right-of-way as partial mitigation for prior removals.

Sean also previewed a maintenance blitz at Crowley Park to prepare for spring and said staff maintain photographic and map records of Wildflower event setups; he said the department hopes to use city drones to reduce manual rooftop photo work.

Staff reported a company called WET will service the fountain at Gallant Plaza to perform a detailed inspection and repairs that staff hope will return the fountain to operation well before the Wildflower festival.

Yvonne (speaker 5) shared disc-golf usage pulled from the uDisc app: 10,791 rounds were tracked this year from app users; since opening in 2023 the course has 26,684 total tracked rounds and roughly 4,600 unique players. She said the course ranks among the state’s most played and the data has prompted discussion about adding another course.

The commission and staff also thanked crews for post-event cleanups after a large kite event and discussed vacant city-owned houses in park areas being boarded and held for potential demolition.

What’s next: staff will continue volunteer outreach for Earth Day, schedule fountain repairs with the WET contractor and bring fee recommendations to the commission in April as part of the budget timetable.