SPRING PROJECTS: AREA PARKS GEAR UP FOR SUMMER BY MAKING IMPROVEMENTS, REPAIRS

Parks and Recreation employee Tom Snider mowed grass around the soccer goals at Shawnee Soccer Park.

Parks and Recreation employees Mike Kern, left, and Andrew Schlegel cut the grass at the Shawnee Sports Complex.

Mike Kirn mowed around one of the Softball Fields at the Shawnee Park Sports Complex.

Cape Girardeau Parks and Recreation maintenance worker Kevin Weber replaced a swing in Arena Park.

For many area parks, spring is a time of preparation for the upcoming activities of summer.

On Saturday, for instance, Cape Girardeau has scheduled its annual Friends of the Park Day when volunteers help plant flowers and clean the city's parks.

In Cape Girardeau, Parks and Recreation Director Dan Muser said the volunteers help plant the flowers and shrubs and the city maintains them.

Besides the flower plantings this spring, park employees will fix and replace playground equipment, do landscaping around city buildings and ready other facilities.

Muser oversees the upkeep of the city's 23 parks, golf course, three cemeteries and two swimming pools that cover more than 600 acres.

That includes opening restrooms and other facilities and keeping them functioning. It also means getting athletic fields ready for play and putting in permanent greens at the city's golf course.

Along with the baseball fields, there are volleyball courts, basketball courts and two swimming pools to care for. The bubble at the Central High School pool will come off the end of May.

This year's projects are anticlimactic to last year's when the city opened the Osage Centre and the Shawnee Park complex.

A major project this summer is completing a new soccer field at Shawnee Park. The city, with funding help from the Cape Area Youth Soccer Association, has built a soccer field with lights, an irrigation system and Bermuda grass in hopes of drawing major soccer events to this area.

Muser said the field will be used for major tournaments and not on an everyday basis. It is thought to be one of the best soccer facilities in this area.

Along with the new soccer field, the city will complete a 1.75-mile stretch of the Cape LaCroix Recreational Trail from Arena Park to Osage Park.

The first part of the trail, used by walkers and bicyclists, opened three years ago and eventually will span nearly four miles.

Other work includes interior work at the Arena Building, painting, recarpeting, tiling and improving the restrooms.

Crews also have reshingled some of the city's picnic shelters and repainted some others. Just the usual damage control.

At Ranney Park, the city has built a new shelter and has installed playground equipment.

The parks department has 43 full-time employees and a number of part-time employees. During the summer the number of part-time employees doubles to about 200 employees; many are college and high school students.

At the Cape Girardeau County parks, Parks Superintendent Bruce Watkins can be seen spraying for weeds and dandelions along the bank of one of the county's three lakes.

Watkins said his parks' specialty is outdoor activities, such as picnicking, walking and fishing. They are family-oriented parks.

The county has no athletic fields, as in Jackson and Cape Girardeau, but attracts visitors for family reunions, hiking the trails and fishing the restocked lakes.

While the four full-time employees, including Watkins, do the upkeep for the summer's activities, they also have installed a 1-mile trail through an arboretum and have built a picnic shelter to hold 200 people.

The county maintains three trails. There is a 3/4-mile trail designated as moderately strenuous in South Park.

In the North Park, there is a 1/4-mile wheelchair accessible trail, and the trail built through the arboretum that will have 150 different species of trees. The arboretum was developed in cooperation with the people of the Missouri Urban & Community Forestry Advisory Council's Southeast Region.

Watkins' crew maintains more than 300 acres in the county's three parks.

Besides building the new shelter, workers have rearranged playground equipment in the parks to better fit the age of the users. Crews have put playground equipment for toddlers together for both convenience and safety, Watkins said.

As another safety feature, cushioning material has been added to the playground areas.

The county also has installed horseshoe pits and sandboxes at most of the county's 14 picnic shelters.

Watkins expects about 1,500 reservations for the picnic shelters over the summer and said most shelters have been booked for weekends this summer. There is no charge to reserve a shelter.

At Jackson, Parks and Recreation Director Shane Anderson is new to the position and is speaking to a variety of clubs and civic organizations to assess the city's recreational needs.

Currently, the Jackson Day in the Park to clean up the city's parks is set for April 25. There are five parks within the city's limits.

Anderson said most of the work in the parks before he was appointed the city's first recreation director two months ago was done by civic organizations.

In preparation for summer activities, Jackson has reopened Rotary Lake in the city park and has improved the area around the lake.

The city has removed a 12-station exercise area from the lake area for safety reasons.

Lake improvements included deepening the lake and stocking it with bass, sunfish and perch.

A senior citizen fishing day is planned for July 14 with lake biologist Chris Kennedy of the Missouri Department of Conservation.

The park department has a superintendent and a staff of four. Anderson said the city will hire five seasonal workers for summer.

Some of the events planned this summer at Jackson are a Kids' Day on June 6 and a 5K Fun Run Mile Walk on Aug. 18 in conjunction with the city's Homecomers Days.

Anderson also plans to conduct a series of workshops on lifetime sports. He plans classes in golf, bowling and tennis.

At the Legion Baseball Field, the city has added an electronic scoreboard and a press box.

Anderson said he will continue the process of educating himself to the recreational needs of the community and help educate the community on what recreational offerings the city has.

Because the recreational program is new, he said, it can develop its own personality, so Anderson will continue to seek community involvement in developing that personality.