City warms up for spring

With spring finally emerging as temperatures begin to warm up, those responsible for the city’s parks have already been preparing for warmer weather.

Although most of the manual labor cleaning, painting and removing winter storm debris will not start until the snow melts, many volunteer organizations are lining up to lend their helping hands, according to Rick Thompson, spokesman for the Boston Parks Department.

‘[The] United Way and City Year have worked with [the BPD] in the past, and several school and church groups have also expressed interest in helping this spring,’ Thompson said. ‘We select the time and location and then provide everyone with the tools they will need to complete the job.’

The volunteers will work alongside the regular BPD crew, which consists of 10 to 12 people per area of five to seven parks. The crew begins with basic cleanup work in April and continues with general upkeep throughout the summer and into early autumn.

‘It’s a great event for everyone involved,’ Thompson said.

The Department of Environmental Management, which maintains the Charles River Esplanade among other properties, has a peak staff of about 1,000 people during the spring and summer 20 percent higher than during the winter to clean the properties and provide for the safety of the people who use them.

‘[DEM] seasonal staff includes facilities managers, facilities cleaners, law enforcement and lifeguards,’ Felix Brown, assistant press secretary of Environmental Affairs, said.

The hiring of lifeguards is important during this time of year to ensure that the DEM’s 36 freshwater beaches and eight ocean beaches will be adequately covered when they open in the summer, Brown said. Also essential are staffers of the DEM’s 40 campgrounds, which comprise more than 40,000 sites.

Brown said the effect of Governor Romney’s decision to merge the DEM with the Metropolitan District Commission is not imminent enough to alter the DEM’s preparations for spring.

‘Since that idea hasn’t been made official yet, it probably won’t affect us until next year,’ he said.

Brown did say that if it did pass through legislature, the departments would be reorganized, eliminating areas of duplication.

‘The MDC and the [Executive Office of Transportation and Construction] both have paving crews,’ Brown said. ‘In the future, the MDC’s paving needs would be filled by the EOTC or the Massachusetts Highway Department.’

Although both the BPD and the DEM were unsure as to how Romney’s budget cuts would specifically hinder their ability to reopen the parks in the spring, Brown admitted to feeling effects of the cuts.

‘We’ve already had $2.5 million cut from our budget, and what that’s done is forced us to shorten our seasons,’ he said. ‘For example, in the past [the DEM] has opened [its] pools in late June; this year, we won’t be able to open them until July 1st.’

Although these initial cuts have not yet proven detrimental to the department, there are still many more cuts on the line.

‘So we’ve been lucky in that our front line staffing is targeted to be the same as it has in previous years, but we’ll have to wait and see what the future holds,’ Brown said.