Year in Review 2020
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we are parks year in review 2020 MAYOR JORGE O. ELORZA CITY OF PROVIDENCE 1 We are Parks! The Parks Department met the challenges of 2020 head on. Despite the temporary closure of the City’s parks and facilities in the early days of the COVID crisis, Parks never wavered from our commitment to provide safe spaces to play, relax and explore. As essential workers, our crews have been in our neighborhoods and downtown parks every day, providing the kind of care and maintenance that has become our standard of excellence. With the closure of in-person schools, focused on providing healthy meals at recreation centers and parks. As the crisis continued unabated and parks reopened, it became increasingly clear that Parks are the answer to retaining quality of life and community in Providence. Our parks became gyms, churches, retail spaces, schools, concert halls, camps and places for families and friends to safely connect. Working creatively during challenging times, we sought and received funding to collaborate with our sister department, Recreation to hire 90 youth as ambassadors for our parks; to provide masks, sanitizer, gentle social distancing reminders, and pick up trash left by troves of visitors. Our crews and support staff are to be commended for making the safety of our public spaces a priority, while fear, loss and illness permeated our ranks. Throughout it all, our management and design teams kept our capital improvement work moving forward, resulting in the completion of 26 major park revitalization projects, totaling $4,650,000 of investments. Our venues found creative ways to generate income and welcome the public back. Sadly, our North Burial Ground provided unprecedented burial services to families who lost loved ones to COVID. While we had to postpone some of our cornerstone events like Earth Day, volunteer appreciation event, Staff appreciation day, the end of the summer brought a ray of sunshine with the socially distant celebration of the completion of our new grounds facility resulting in better working conditions and more efficient operations. The Parks Department staff continues to creatively problem solve, leverage resources, add value to all our contract projects, and be there for our community. They too are heroes of this pandemic. 2 Mission Providence’s parks are essential components of building a healthy, inclusive and thriving community. Through our Parks Department we aim to provide city residents with inspiring outdoor spaces that dramatically impact the quality of life within each neighborhood. It is our belief that all residents should have access to a public park that is safe, brings community together and encourages our youth to play, learn and explore. By working in collaboration with local friends groups, we will work to support the needs of each neighborhood and provide programming that is reflective of the children, adults and staff that use these spaces daily. Goals Create a unified, coordinated, and accessible park system. Develop parks, public spaces, and programs that engage and inspire. Develop brand recognition for quality services (signage, PR). Continue to build the city’s tree canopy. Establish a national reputation for best practices and the creative use of resources. Be renowned for our responsiveness to community needs and interests. Continue building a team of dedicated, talented and committed employees who are proud to make Providence parks exceptional. Increase biodiversity and ecological habitat as an integral part of parks design. Priorities Create safe, healthy, welcoming spaces that meet the needs of Providence’s distinct and diverse neighborhoods. Provide enhanced outdoor recreation opportunities by developing innovative, sustainable and responsive parks, facilities, amenities and programs. Develop facilities and programs appropriate for multiple generations of residents including those interested in traditional sports and those interested in alternative forms of recreation. Connect children and families to nature and strengthen communities through our shared spaces that inspire. 3 Operations The Parks Department currently maintains 120 outdoor spaces. These include traditional parks, athletic fields, basketball courts, playgrounds, conservation areas, walking/running tracks and trails, non- traditional recreation areas (skateboard features, bike tracks, parkour), dog parks, cemeteries, an ice rink, and the flagship Roger Williams Park. In addition, the Forestry Division manages the city’s 27,400 street trees, as well as all trees in city parks and on public property. It handles more than 2,000 service requests from Providence residents each year, including dead tree removal, tree pruning, pick-up of fallen branches, and stump removal. We worked to improve operations and streamline processes in a number of ways. For general operations, we created and maintain a website where manuals and specifications are readily available to staff and maintained projects are archived. LED RETROFIT Upgraded all lights at City Center SNOW OPERATIONS Cleared snow in Ward 9, RWP and downtown Providence Parks, school sidewalks, and five recreation centers in all major storms The North Burial Ground continually strives toward its mission to Gravestone preservation memorialize the deceased, comfort the living, and be an historical destination for the community. 2020 has been no exception, even amid an increase in burials as a result of Covid-19. Staff has worked exceptionally under added pressure, and NBG has continued to address long-standing concerns like gravestone restoration while also offering new opportunities for the community to engage with the North Burial Ground, even from the comfort of their homes. 292 internments including 27 cremations in 2020, a 300% increase in comparison to 2019 192 niches available for sale in our new columbaria garden 76 headstones reset, repaired, or cleaned by NBG staff 147 plants or flowers installed 6 interactive, virtual content tours available on the NBG website 4 FORESTRY OPERATIONS 537 total trees planted by Forestry: 26 PVD Tree Keepers trained 501 trees 36 additional trees 85 total PVD Tree Keepers trained since 2016 planted by PVD planted by other means Neighborhood (City Council, grants, rd 33 year designated Tree City USA Planting Program volunteers) Creative chainsaw carving brought some whimsy to 2020 Tree planting at Ardoene Park 800 trees protected from Emerald Ash 2,864 total trees pruned: Borer through a two-year treatment plan: 220 treated this year and 580 scheduled for 2021 2,606 street trees (incl. 1,961 thru block pruning) Forestry staff received training on entire park trees industry standards for pruning and safety 258 5 Workforce tracking in GreenCities GIS, included here is a six month snapshot: Mow, 4% Other, 2% Building (other), 12% Electrical, 11% Plumbing, 4% Trim/cut, 16% Irrigation check, 31% Other, 15% Litter pick up, 17% Empty trash, 62% Graffiti removal, 11% New sign install, 10% Fence repair, 6% NEIGHBORHOOD PARK SERVICES CENTRAL MAINTENANCE Completed Assignments January - October 2020 Completed Assignments May - October 2019 4964 778 Backboard installation at Cranston Street court Retaining wall build at Fargnoli Park Fence repair at Dexter Training Grounds 6 Food and Play Access Our Play Ambassadors played a very special Play Ambassadors cleaned equipment role in our parks this year, ensuring that Rhode 20 times per day on average! Islanders could get outside and play safely. Play Ambassadors were on site every weekday to greet visitors, remind them of social distancing guidelines, provide hand sanitizer and masks, clean each play area at least twice a day, and connect families to other valuable programming like Eat, Play, Learn. Ambassadors also tracked COVID compliance and number of visitors to parks, which was valuable information in determing our pandemic response. I was happy to give out POPArt! bags today and yesterday. It felt good giving it to them because they were excited “ to use them and I like seeing smiles on their faces! “There were more kids playing in the park today, and adults thanked me for cleaning the equipment. Visitors followed guidelines, maintained distancing, and stayed with their groups. Held weekly zoom meetings for 150 summer staff to introduce each enrichment kit and how to safely engage youth utilizing the kit materials 7 800 bags of fresh produce were distributed weekly for ten weeks through a partnership with Urban Greens 95,000 grab and go meals served from March-June and managed pilot home delivery system for Providence Public Schools 333,922 grab and go meals served from July-September at six multi-day school-based sites, 20 park sites, and 33 enrolled sites The Botanical Center’s Produce Donation Project grew and harvested vegetables for local food pantries in South Providence, donating a total of 4,000 pounds of produce FITNESS IN THE PARKS Due to Covid, the Fitness in the Parks program was used to help small businesses this year. It was proposed to studios and gyms that if they offered one FREE class at a desirable time/location then they could offer fee-based classes and be all classes would be covered under the Fitness in the Parks permit. 10 studios worked with this program 15 free classes offered weekly, including varying levels of yoga, Zumba, and sports conditioning 8 Programming Prior to COVID-19, the Urban Wildlife Refuge Partnership hosted three sessions of our Urban Nature Explorers program for 67 people in partnership with the Roger Williams Park Zoo and Cranston Public Libraries, including a winter walk throughout Roger Williams Park. These programs engage families in nature play and learning by exploring together. We also continued Free Monthly Bird walks through the winter and fall, engaging 90 people and seeing over 42 species of birds in six parks. Nature Camp was adapted in order to continue learning opportunities in a safe way. We created and distributed over 1,000 Nature Kits and 3,000 Field Guides which included tools for exploration and Providence-specific information to help families learn about the nature in their neighborhoods.