Maintenance — MIKE PARZIALE

PARKS & REC

I left Lindal back when the kids started ‘distance learning’ in 2020. As the housing market and lumber prices went crazy during the pandemic I made a shift from General Contracting to Maintenance Operation for Hood River Valley Parks and Rec. We’d been living in Hood River for a year or so and the job seemed like a good way to continue to integrate with the community at a time when socializing was all but illegal.

My main intention was to try and make improvements to the skatepark but I soon found that there was lots to do, little budget, and an aging Aquatic Center that needed a lot of attention. One of the first hurdles of the job was to get my Aquatic Facility Operator Certification and learn a ton about water chemistry. In addition to maintaining the three public pools there were trails to cut, parks to mow, irrigation systems to update, plenty to do. I most enjoyed working with the crew, cleaning out and reorganizing neglected spaces, and getting to interact with a variety of folks all around town.

Having been built just after World War Two, a complete replacement of the Aquatic Center had been up for discussion and there was talk of getting it on the ballot for the next midterm election. With that in mind, I thought my 3D modeling skills might come in handy to help shape the direction of a new Community Center. I took the job thinking I would run Maintenance for a year or two and chart a path towards Project Management, should the measure to increase the tax rate pass.

In the meantime, I wanted to spend as little time on a computer as possible since my last job had slowly crept more and more into the digital realm.

Mike Howard, Aquatic Center Supervisor Extraordinaire, on the right as we fold up a tent panel for the summer

The morning ritual: Check the water chemistry, pumps, temps, turbidity and then go have coffee on the way to the parks / trails

In the platform lift high above the pool to deal with some tent issues

Getting creative with a 'pool-noodle scrunchie' to insulate around the HVAC inlet tube

Checking the rope swing connections after replacing the lights over the pool decks

Something wrong with the UV system, first replacing the ballasts

Pulling the multiple-thousand dollar UV bulbs out of their housing. A lot like an expensive game of 'Operation'

Isopropyl Alcohol and a scouring pad on a stick to the rescue

Careful reassembly of the bulbs, reinstall, cross fingers and fire it up

Ultraviolet glow and a sigh of relief at not frying the bulbs

Marcie and Daniel in the never-ending tent battle

Snow removal, my least favorite part of the job

TRAILS

A fun part of the job was maintaining the Indian Creek and Westside trail systems with Gina. She had cut all of these trails with Art Carroll over the years and has been maintaining them ever since. She knows every square inch, every plant, every tree, and has lots of interesting stories to hear.

Our boss, Mark, would often get a call that a limb was down and we’d pack up the UTV with chainsaws and such, go see what was up and, if needed, haul material back to the barn. Six years of trail debris and blackberries were housed at the Barrett barn, so burning all of the old material was a satisfying project, even though it took two days. Putting down new gravel, mowing, clearing blackberries and culverts, fixing bridges and boardwalks were all part of the trail work.

Taking down this giant hedge of blackberries with Gina 'the Machina'

Dealing with a larger tree that almost fell on one of our benches

Using the tractor to try and combine the piles and create some airflow

Lots of cottonwoods to contend with by the creek

Daniel taking down some overgrowth back behind the High School

Jackhammering some concrete as we move signage around

We had to pull this 'widow-maker' down before cutting it up

Mowing segment 2 by the college, a good rabbit spotting area

Lots of equipment to maintain. Here the brush cutter gets a weld

Me and Art Carroll, founder of the Indian Creek Trail

With the tractor we would load about 2500 pounds of gravel into the truck, shovel it into the gator, then distribute it around the trail. We did four loads this day, that's 10,000 pounds shoveled by hand. I was very sore the next day, Gina, a grandmother of four, was fine.

In the spring of '23 there was a bit of a landslide on the ICT that left this giant ponderosa looking like it had grown out of the trail, but it had actually slid down from above.

We had to rig high-lift jacks on their sides to slowly push the stump over the bank.

The city arborist estimated its weight around 10,000 pounds. One click at a time it took three days but was in a spot you couldn't get equipment to.

Chuck sets up another block on our backwoods engineering project.

Gina cuts a new notch for the fencepost to nest into.

Around four in the afternoon the stump finally slid down the hill. There's a really low-res video of it somewhere, but it wasn't as dramatic as we had hoped. It sounded like thunder though.

Starting one of three shoulder repair jobs with the 'deadman' in the 'grave.'

Working with Avery from 'Twin Oaks Construction' in the aftermath of the slide.

Garbage going down, gravel coming up. We must have made a couple hundred trips back and forth, but the thirteen minute commute was pretty fun and went right past an eagles nest.

Uncle Sam chillin'. The nest is a little ways down. On one drive-by he was eating a fish, which was cool to see.

Fun to drive the gravel up, but less fun to spread and compact it.

PARKS

Outside of the trails and the Aquatic Center there are seven parks that also need to be maintained. By spring I was starting to feel a bit overwhelmed and noticed that no matter how much work I did things seemed to get worse. Parks and Rec in Hood River is its own special Tax District, which means it can’t dip into County, City, or Port funding.

It’s a unique scenario to have an affluent and active town that isn’t positioned to support its Recreation department a bit more. By May it became apparent that the measure to put a new pool up for vote would not be on the midterm ballot due to costly bureaucratic hurdles. I was sad to hear that, but realized there was nothing anyone can do about it. The plan was to look forward to the November elections and potentially dissolve and then reinstate Parks & Rec at a higher tax rate.

Getting some posts ready for a new fence at Golden Eagle Park

Setting posts around the pump track and bike jump area

Erosion control with some jute on the hillside

The turf around the pump track had originally been nailed into the asphalt / gravel but a lot of the nails were finding their way out and onto this roller magnet

I decided to try a bead of Lexel on both surfaces and then stamp them together. It worked really well and with HRATS help all the turf was glued down in this fashion

Making friends with the brush cutter above the skatepark

Work party in Odell with folks from The Next Door

Landscape fabric and mulch up at the Odell park

Keeping the summer camp kids busy before a trip to the pool

It was fun to build this Port-a-John screen at Culbertson Park

Elsa and 'Charlie' enjoying Culbertson park

Summer work party at the Skatepark with prizes from Vans

Running some ADS to keep water from making its way under the Skatepark shed roof

A nice view of Mt Hood and the Barrett Barn while mowing some of the thirty acre park

We kept the Gator and the Tractor in the barn and when we did the burn pile, spent a few days cleaning it out a bit

I got poison oak three times on the job but this one was the worst, both arms and ankles were about the same 😭 I went crazy with the Technu that night and again with Zanfel the next day but eventually had to take Prednisone

Mowing the new Westside park across from Westside Elementary.

Getting rid of the weird 'pit' trash can situation at the skatepark.

The hole was about twelve feet deep, so lots of gravel needed to decommission it.

Really hyped on the Tommy Gate addition to the truck. Super helpful.

A 'before' photo of the paint at the skatepark.

Looking better around the main Skatepark entry.

IRRIGATION

I learned a lot about irrigation on this job which was kind of cool. It’s pretty satisfying when you get a system fine tuned and everything is working right. It can be a drag when there’s suddenly a mushy spot at a park and you need to track down a leak. Luckily I only had a few of those, but I had to replace a lot of older heads that had simply run their course.

I don't understand why valve boxes don't have a base. It seemed like just about every one that I opened was in this type of condition. I dug them all out but moles, voles, and worms would eventually fill the space back in with dirt. I think if I ever put in a system I'd pour an inch of concrete at the base

Cleaning out the sand filter from the Farmers Irrigation feed

TRAIL EXTENSION

When I was bummed that the ballot measure wasn’t able to get to vote in May I focused my attention on the fall when we would be cutting a new quarter-mile extension of the Indian Creek Trail. I was excited to spend my days in the woods just battling nature and watching out for Poison Oak. We worked with the Columbia Land Trust, who own the property, and Mark got all the permits and neighbors on board before we started cutting.

Gina has been cutting trails around the Pacific Northwest since she was sixteen and worked on the Multnomah Falls trail, Dog Mountain, and a bunch of others in addition to the ICT and the WST so, as always, it was great to have her guidance, inspiration, and infallible work ethic.

Mark and Avery on a preliminary walk of the proposed trail

The brush cutter with a 3T blade is the weapon of choice for the first two passes

Roughing in a switchback which would eventually utilize an excavator for this hillside

We had to take down a few cottonwoods, which gets the adrenaline pumping

Getting the mini excavator involved on the switchback

A visit from Art Carroll as the new trail starts to take shape

Looking west around the bend after a first dig

This guy almost stole one of our bits but eventually broke up and we retrieved it

The occasional stump. This one took up a good part of the day

We finally made our way out to the viewpoint

Just a bit more to go to reveal the Hood River below

The fam with a peek of the river at the fully cleared viewpoint

This was definitely my favorite construction project during my time at Parks & Rec.

Adding bollards at the trailheads just before the big opening weekend.

The ribbon cutting for the trail extension was coupled with a volunteer work event. Some parts deep in the trail were covered with hundreds of tires, which presumably had been rolled down from the orchard over the years. No one knows for sure where they came from.

Great to see Elsa so hyped on pitching in.

Gina moved all of those before lunch. Just kidding, but she probably could have.

That's a lot of rubber removed from the forest.

Many thanks to Gina, everyone at Parks & Rec and Columbia Land Trust for all the opportunities to connect with the community and help out on the trail team. That's a wrap, time to go skate with the kids! 🛹⏰

SKATE CAMP

In the summer of 2023 I teamed up with our newly-hired Recreation Coordinators, Jaime Rivera and Gio Magaña-Rivera to organize the first Skate Camp that Parks & Rec would offer at the Rotary Skatepark. We had four coaches, working with fifteen campers at a time, for three-day sessions throughout June, July and August. Every day we had lunch provided by NYC Subs and Peliniti Pizza, as well as prizes from evo and Doug’s. Thanks everyone for their generosity and support.

When I originally started working with Parks & Rec, as the Maintenance Supervisor, I always wanted to advocate for programming at the Skate Park, so it was nice to see it come to fruition.

Ryder destroying the 'high jump' feature

NYC subs and Pelinti pizza for lunch each day

Rock, paper, scissors for prizes from evo and Doug's twice a day

Griptape on old 'graveyard' boards donated by Tactics via Kevin Nimick. Thanks Kev 😘

Painting the old decks white for blank Arts & Craft canvases

Teddy carefully moves his board to dry in the sun

Camp dog Molly thinking about airing the pyramid

More often than not, Nico and some of the kids would end up down at the waterfront as soon as camp was over at 2pm each day

Another beautiful summer in the Columbia River Gorge