|
His crew gets serious about fun and games
By Mary Madewell
Published September 5, 2009
There’s more to maintaining 18 city parks and recreational facilities than meets the eye.
Just ask City of Paris Parks Supervisor Bill Loranger, who, along with a crew of seven, maintains not only parks but all street right of ways.
In his position for almost 10 years, Loranger, formerly of Massachusetts, has been a city employee for the past 14 years.
Sitting at a bench under a Wade Park pavilion Wednesday, Loranger talked about his move to Texas; his acclamation to the climate change; his job and the city’s parks and recreational facilities.
Originally a truck driver by trade, Loranger said a fellow trucker lived in Paris and one weekend Loranger came for a visit during a weekend layover in Dallas. He met his wife and Paris soon became home.
“I got hooked and then she said, ‘me or the truck.’”
After driving a truck locally for a brief time, Loranger tried a couple of manufacturing jobs and then applied for a job with the city street department.
“I was getting to the age of looking forward to the future as far as retirement and moving through the ranks,” Loranger said. “The city offered stability with incentives.”
He jokes about his acclamation to Texas.
“The first summer was rough and the first winter — well I wore shorts most of the time and everyone thought I was crazy,” Loranger said. “A couple of years later I could stand the heat, started wearing heavy coats in the winter, and now I actually like the climate.”
But Loranger said he will never get used to Texas ants.
“When I was young, I played with ants,” Loranger said. “Ants we had up north didn’t bite.”
Then he met a Texas fire ant.
“The first time I stepped on an ant hill I had them all over me and man do they bite,” Loranger said. “It was definitely a learning experience.”
Taking care of ant hills at city parks is only one of numerous tasks Park Department workers perform.
Wade Park, which Loranger termed “the city’s premier park” is serviced twice a day in the morning about 9 a.m. when the handicapped accessible restrooms are opened and again near the end of the day. The park is located off 25th St. N.E. between Pine Bluff and Price streets. It features a large pavilion, two playgrounds — one designed for toddlers — as well as shuffle board and a roller hockey area, which is lighted at night until almost 11 p.m.
“We disinfect and clean the restrooms daily, wash the pavilion off about three times a week and empty trash cans daily,” Loranger said. “We carry about five cubic yards of trash out of here a week, probably more during the summer months.”
The park, known for its circa 1960s rocket ship, attracts students from area schools as well as from Sulphur Springs and Greenville.
“Just ask about anyone in a 50-mile radius where the park with the rocket ship is, and they can tell you,” Loranger said. “We have people here who would like for us to take it down and then we have people who beg us to leave it.”
The park supervisor said the next most used parks are Oak Park in West Paris on Bonham Street and Culbertson Park in southeast Paris on E. Washington Street. Oak Park features a walking track, playground, pavilion and horseshoe pits. Culbertson is lighted at night and has six tennis courts, playground and softball field. Nearby on 13th Street S.E. is Ellis Park, a small park with limited playground equipment.
Martin Luther King Jr. Park, located one block north of Martin Luther King Jr. Street off 14th Street N.E., features a new basketball court and a practice field. Walker Park, located on 18th Street N.W. features several practice fields, a playground, pavilion and Frizbee golf.
Leon Williams Park on 7th N.W. Street is the city’s mostly recently renovated park. It features a playscape similar to one at Wade Park along with two pavilions, two basketball courts and a walking track.
Next on the renovation list is 10th N.E. Park on the street from which it gets it name in northeast Paris.
“City Council just budgeted about $17,000 for us to get started on the park,” Loranger said. “We’ll have to start with surfacing, which is not exactly cheap.”
With new and renovated playgrounds, the city builds retainer walls to hold 12 inches of impact material. A flex base mat with 4-inch channels is installed underneath to quickly drain water.
“It could rain three inches and within a couple of hours there is no water standing except where areas might be wallowed out under slides,” the park supervisor explained. “We use a material called Fibar, which is a wood chip free of any kind of chemicals.” Loranger said the city spends $8,000 a year on Fibar playground material just to maintain current surfaces.
Flipping through a playground equipment catalogue, Loranger pointed to playscapes costing $35,000 to $48,000. A four-seat swing set comes with a $5,400 price tag.
“Each year the city tries to do what it can to upgrade and maintain parks,” Loranger said. “Some years we have more; some years less.”
A new fishing pier at Lake Crook received a $100,000 allocation in this year’s budget but Shawn Napier, director of Engineering, Planning and Zoning, said at an Aug. 27 council meeting the pier could be scaled back somewhat to allow some funds to be shifted to parks.
In addition to playground parks, Loranger and his crew also maintain other aesthetic, historic and recreational properties including Dragon Park at Paris Junior College; Wise Field; Farmers Market/Skate Park; Heritage Park; Lake Gibbons; Lake Crook; ByWaters Park; Culbertson Fountain; Trail de Paris; and the Athletic Complex near Love Civic Center.
“And some people say there’s nothing to do in Paris?” Loranger quipped. “I’ll disagree.”
Share |
Save |
Mail |
Print |
Letter
|
|
 |
|
|
