PARKS AND RECREATION QUARTERLY MEETING

The Parks & Recreation Department, its full-time staff, board members, and senior leadership met at the Pavilion in late July to celebrate Parks & Recreation Month during their Quarterly Meeting.

The Parks & Recreation Month theme was “Where Community Grows”, and to start things off Steve Sims, Traci Farris, and Mike Dopson made short remarks based on that idea. Board members Gil Albiani, Jim Luttrell, Peter Sakaris, and Angela Spease presented the Parks & Recreation Month proclamation confirming the District’s commitment to parks and recreation's health and wellness benefits and acknowledging July as Parks & Recreation Month.

New employees were introduced, and the welldeserved Parks & Recreation Employee of the Quarter was awarded to Eileen Alcanices. She continues to set an example of what a model district employee looks like, professional, engaging, and supremely competent. In the past few months, her work has supported the transition to a new 24-hour answering service, the addition of GIS components to the Cityworks maintenance management program, and the ongoing development of a centralized Parks & Recreation budget and purchasing team.

Parks & Recreation Department managers then reported on the many things we do that support growing our community. Some of the highlights, but by no means all of them, included: a busy and successful summer camp season with a record number of participants; the hiring of 192 lifeguards, 111 of whom were returnees; groundbreaking on the CORE at Morse Park; major renovations to Herd Field and Cardinal Field at Morse Park; the development of an online picnic rental program; a restructuring of our field user system leading to an additional $181K in revenue; implementation of Cityworks maintenance management software; installation of nine park benches throughout the Camden Greenbelt; and the Ranger-led implementation of a districtwide 400 MHz radio system.

The day was capped off with a scavenger hunt in Elk Grove Park for eleven diverse Parks & Recreation teams who were tasked with taking