Gessner shares what inspired her to survey the parks

I have no idea. I seriously have no idea. I just thought it would be fun.”

Nancy Gessner

To report issues in Hastings area parks by telephone, call 651-480-6175. To report issues in person, visit the Parks and Recreation Department Office located at 920 10th St. W.

Parks often serve as a linchpin of a community. They are where children go to play, where families gather for sporting events and generally serve as a space available for whatever the public needs. Parks become identity markers, often naming the communities that surround them, and becoming an important factor in bringing people to that community and keeping them there.
Park maintenance, be it mowing grass, weeding, repainting, or landscaping, is a process foundational to all the good that stems from parks. If weeds overcome trails, it can be hard to follow them. If playground equipment breaks, it can be unsafe for children to play there. This sort of inventory is standard practice for Hastings Parks and Recreation. For most residents, however, this level of detailed inspection isn’t common, certainly not beyond one’s neighborhood park. That isn’t the case for Nancy Gessner and her grandchildren, Lilah, Harper, and Leo.
Gessner has long been a resident of the Riverwood neighborhood and frequented Riverwood Park, often bringing her grandchildren to the playset there and walking there with her husband. Starting in June, Gessner had a new idea, what if she and her grandchildren toured all the parks with playgrounds in Hastings, surveying and rating them. As to what exactly spurned the idea, “I have no idea. I seriously have no idea. I just thought it would be fun,” said Gessner.
Gessner set to work developing a system by which her grandchildren could survey and rate parks. What she settled on was a half-page questionnaire posing questions like ‘are there swings? (if so how many and what kinds), are there bathrooms, and what makes this park different?’ Finally, she asked each grandchild to rate the park overall on a scale of 1-5. On June 26, Gessner set out to begin the survey with her grandchildren.
Park to park, Gessner toured with her grandchildren throughout Hastings noting the number of swings, the types of slides, and what stood out in each park.
“It pretty much took all summer,” said Gessner, with the final day forcing her tour to several parks in order to complete the survey before school started.
With the results of the survey now in, here’s what the kids had to say about Hastings’ parks. The highest scoring park was Lion’s Park, with each grandchild abandoning the 1-5 scoring system to award the park, 10,000, 10,000 and six respectively. Each noted the zipline of the playset as an outstanding feature. Other highly rated parks included Roadside Park, South Pines, Dakota Hills and Wilson Park.
As to the losers, Liliah, Harper, and Leo had little good to say about Conzemius Park, each noting that nothing stood out about it, with the park scoring ones across the board. Other low rated parks included the Veteran’s complex and Depot Park.
The group’s own Riverwood Park rated well, with the rock wall and fake car standing out against other playsets across the city.
Gessner’s homemade inventory mirrors the Hastings Parks and Recreation’s system for assessing parks quite well. Parks and Recreation employees perform annual playground inspections where inspectors “basically touch every piece of equipment,” from sitting on swings to going down each and every slide, said Hastings Parks and Recreation Director Chris Jenkins. Issues identified from these inspections are compiled into lists that are gradually worked through based on weather and community events occurring in each park.
In years past, playsets were regularly replaced every 20 years, but that practice has gone out of fashion as budgets tightened. Since around 2008, playsets are generally replaced every 25 years based on factors like damage and wear. Regular maintenance like mowing grass and weed whacking occurs on a rotating schedule across each of the 37 parks in town and along the 30 miles of trail overseen by Hastings Parks and Recreation.
Beyond maintenance, the Parks and Rec Department also focuses on major projects each year including revitalizing parks and construction. Projects currently being worked on by the Parks and Rec department include the creation of a master plan for Lake Isabella Park and Lake Rebecca Park respectively and updating the refrigeration system and roof for the civic arena.
For Gessner, the exercise was more than just a way to get outdoors with her grandchildren, it was an excuse to learn about the parks of Hastings: “When I took them, I learned things I didn’t know about local parks,” said Gessner, often having to find name signs for each park or discovering new trails in them. “I just thought it could be another fun activity for other grandparents or parents.” Said Gessner.
Ironically, Lilah, Harper and Leo’s feedback is quite close to what Hastings Parks and Recreation is looking for from the public. While Parks and Rec employees are constantly out in community parks and trails, when it comes to identifying issues and concerns in them, “we really rely on our public to let us know,” said Jenkins. The Parks and Rec department actively solicits input from residents via email, phone, and even in person visits to their office.
To report issues in Hastings area parks by telephone, call 651-480-6175. To report issues in person, visit the Parks and Recreation Department Office located at 920 10th St. W.