Carousel restorations honor tradition while preserving recreation for the future

By Jefferey Spivey

When visitors buy a ticket to the Balboa Park Carousel in San Diego, their likely objective is a few minutes of traditional, family-friendly fun. But they’re actually experiencing part of the city’s history. 

A betrayal of trust destroys credibility

By Ron Ciancutti 

I do some consulting work regarding the completion and structure of bid documents and contracts. Unlike my previous career in government work, these private-sector clients can make decisions based on emotion and preference. In the public work, agencies were obliged to research bids to determine if the lowest bidder was really of the best overall value. If, indeed, that bidder is “lowest and best,” Ohio law requires we engage that contractor. This requirement is intended to save taxpayer money and allow new companies to break into a competitive market by finding a way to offer a lower bid. It’s capitalism at its finest.

Using synthetic turf to minimize dark days and maximize facility usage

By Haley Darling

It’s no secret that northern climates impose challenges to practice and game time for outdoor sports like soccer, football, and baseball. While southern states enjoy the outdoors, their northern neighbors endure drastic conditions, from blizzards and ice to rain, winds, and floods—often cutting several weeks from the season and limiting off-season practices. 

Dividing a baseball field brings three times as much activity

By Casey Wooddell

“The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit.”  --Moliere, French Playwright

In Oxford, Ohio, this quote fits well for a field-renovation project that’s been ongoing for nearly half a decade and has finally wrapped up. Divvying up one adult softball field into three youth baseball and softball diamonds is almost as exciting as a triple play in youth baseball.  

Driven by demographic shifts, the sport is growing at the municipal level

By Mary Helen Sprecher

There’s no end to the number of sports that have been brought to the USA through immigration, such as soccer, field hockey, and rugby. And that’s not even taking into consideration other popular fixtures on the competition calendar like wrestling and track and field. The fact is, one would be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of mainstream sports that do not have roots outside of North America.

Attracting teams for tournaments and the keys to keep them coming back

By Mike McLaughlin

So, you have built a premier sports complex. How do you make it pay? By keeping it busy every day.

“When you build a leading-edge, multi-use facility, sustainability is the number-one concern,” says Darren Tolin, Shawnee County Parks + Recreation (SCP+R) sports supervisor in Kansas. “It’s a double-edged sword. You need to fill the complex daily to generate revenue, but higher use leads to higher maintenance costs.”

 From less mowing to attracting pollinators, there are plenty of reasons to consider them

By Lydia Major and Nikki Schlepp

The benefits of turf alternatives have been debated for years. Members of city councils, the parks commission, or perhaps even community members have touted the benefits: fescues that need only occasional mowing, saving staff time and reducing fossil-fuel consumption; clovers that attract bees and other pollinators that are essential to maintaining the planet’s health; or native wildflowers that require little irrigation but add blooms and beauty to park landscapes. What’s not to like about those options, right?

Building cool parks to beat the urban, heat-island effect

By Rupsa Roy, Julie Eaton Ernst, and Indrani Ghosh 

Parks and open space function as critical infrastructure for public health as well as for mitigating and adapting to climate change. This is especially evident in island environments, where there is limited vegetation, paved surfaces, and dense development. These compounding factors result in higher temperatures when compared to those in rural surroundings—a phenomenon known as the “urban heat-island” (UHI) effect—along with increased stormwater-runoff volumes, velocities, and pollutants that exacerbate urban flood events. 

Day-to-day communication keeps MLB coming back to Lee County facilities

By Jefferey Spivey

Throughout 2023, one of the biggest stories in major league baseball has involved new rules with the addition of a pitch timer, bigger bases, and limitations around defensive shifts. The changes are designed to shorten the average length of games and encourage more viewers to tune in.

So, all season long, diehard fans and commentators alike have watched closely to see how the game they love has been transformed. That means other events like spring training, which usually dominates pre-season chatter, have taken a backseat. But for the parks departments that run MLB spring-training facilities—especially those overseeing more than one ballpark—it has been business as usual, namely because spring training is only one of the many duties they juggle.

Don’t let technology take over what humans can do better

By Ron Ciancutti

I recently saw a truck commercial where the driver took his hands off the wheel and began to play patty-cake by himself. As the music swelled with the beat, he sat back comfortably, presumably to await the oncoming 18-wheeler being driven by a guy who was probably busy trying to reset his cell phone clock. The advantage there was that both drivers would have an accurate time of death when the “head-on” collision occurred.