Finance Committee - 8/16/2017 Page 5
Superintendent Caggiano
They’re responsible for the upkeep of the parks and the public spaces that we take care in the city. Not all
parks. We do the monuments, City Hall.
Chairman Cookson
Exactly. So you have other responsibilities beyond the parks.
Superintendent Caggiano
Correct.
Chairman Cookson
Okay. Do those responsibilities include mowing, weeding, weed whacking, any of...
Superintendent Caggiano
Yes.
Chairman Cookson
Any that goes beyond the parks correct? So you might mow City Hall, or you might...
Superintendent Caggiano
| mow City Hall every week. We do certain island — the Somerset islands need to be mowed. We do
Bergeron’s alley over here a little trimming, the Water Street ramp. We do new areas now that we’ve acquired
rave walks, the west side of the Main Street Bridge that kind of goes down to Franklin Street, and things
Chairman Cookson
So you're able to maintain those areas with your current workforce of 18 full time laborers and your current set
of equipment that you have.
Superintendent Caggiano
No.
Chairman Cookson
No? Talk to me about that.
Superintendent Caggiano
We barely get by. A couple weeks of rain and we’re in trouble. We've added areas of responsibility — new
parks. We've installed irrigation system which increases your mowing. | think we’re over 40 irrigation systems
now. We've built beautiful facilities - Legacy Playground went on line last year, the Holocaust Memorial,
Rotary Common, Park Social over on Pine. So we’ve added all these areas but we’ve never added people.
How we’ve done that is throughout the years we’ve invested in technology. We have better equipment. Some
large mowers. We've trained them a little better but we’re at that point of the bubble where either we’re not
going to be able to take any more on or — we don’t want to lower the standards. | think the things look [pretty
