Public Grounds Maintenance Division Responsibilities

Within the Parks and Recreation Department is the Maintenance Division. This is the principal authority of grounds maintenance for the City of Newton. The responsibilities for the Maintenance Division comprise maintaining all school grounds, all public building grounds including City Hall, the Newton Main Library, Police Headquarters, all parks and playgrounds, cemeteries, community centers, open space areas and a variety of traffic islands and abutments. We utilize both a contractual and departmental workforce to accomplish this.

Maintenance Division

• Ten employees along with 2 managers oversee the Maintenance Division
• We oversee maintenance at 73 parks, 64 playground locations, 23 schools, 9 municipal buildings, 9 recreation buildings, 4 libraries and 4 community centers

Athletic Area Preparation

• 10 Baseball Fields
• 24 Basketball Courts
• 20 Basketball Standards
• 7 Bocce Courts
• 5 Field Hockey Fields
• 8 Football Fields (includes practice)
• 12 Lacrosse Fields
• 27 Little League Fields
• 4 Running Tracks
• 18 Soccer Fields
• 14 Softball Fields
• 29 Youth Size Soccer Fields
• 62 Tennis Courts
• 5 Clay Tennis Courts
• 3 Synthetic Fields

Carpentry

• Construct more than 20 picnic tables per year
• Construct new home plates/pitching rubbers for ballfields
• Build salt barrel stands (for winter)
• Annually rebuild city benches
• Install Departmental signage
• Repair all City wooden fences and 3 wooden bridges
• Annually construct new traffic sawhorses for DPW

Community Court Restitution Program

• Supervise court programs for Brighton, Cambridge, Framingham, Malden, Newton and Waltham
• Responsible for supervision of tasks, personnel, equipment and materials for this year round program

Equipment Repair

• Maintain and repair over 50 pieces of equipment including: 13 specialty units, 6 mowers, 11 trailers, 4 tractors, 3 sanders, 2 water tanks, all snow plows and all turf maintenance equipment and accessories

Fence Repairs

• Responsible for the installation, maintenance and repair of over 30 miles of chain link fence and guard rail.
• Maintains numerous distinct types of fencing at athletic fields, baseball backstops, basketball courts, batting cages, brooks, cemeteries, city reservoirs, conservation areas, electrical boxes, footpaths, historic sites, parks, playgrounds, parking lots, public areas, pumping stations, recreation buildings, recreational swimming areas, residential sites (due to snow plow damage), schools and tennis courts

Field Marking

• Responsible for field marking (practice and game) at over 42 locations
• Layout, install and mark fields for baseball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, soccer, softball and track & field (all levels of play)
• Groups that use our fields include the 5 Little Leagues (North, South, East, West, and Central), Newton Girls Soccer, Newton Youth Soccer, Trinity Catholic High School, adult baseball, adult soccer and adult softball leagues, and all 21 schools including freshman, junior varsity, and varsity for both boys and girls

Ice Skating on Natural Areas

• Daily inspection of ice thickness, quality and type of ice (snow ice etc.).
• Plow and plane ice as needed

Irrigation Maintenance

• Responsible for all irrigation maintenance, irrigation emergencies and repairs at 52 locations
• Systems include: athletic fields, fountains, parks, sprinkler pads, schools, Nahanton Gardens, Newton Center Flower Garden, Newton Center tennis courts and the Senior Center Garden
• Supervise all contractual irrigation installations and emergency repairs

Playground Repairs

• Annually repair and/or replace all damaged/unsafe playground equipment at the 64 locations throughout the City
• Install approximately 500 cubic yards of Fibar (engineered wood fiber carpet playground surfacing)

Snow Removal

• Oversee contractual snow services at 31 locations (21 schools, City Hall, Police Headquarters, Main Library, Ed Center, Senior Center, Auburndale Library, Waban Library, Nonantum Library, Burr Park and Acquinas Property)
• Oversee departmental snow services at 20 locations (4 Departments, 15 Recreation Buildings/Locations and 1 Community Center)

Specialty Event Preparations

• BAA Marathon
• Fourth of July
• Spring Fest
• Waban Village Day
• Newton Serves
• Newton Food Drive
• Farmers Market
• Harvest Fest
• Mayor's Open House
• Memorial Day Parade
• Newton Highlands Village Day

Synthetic Fields

• Perform regular Inspections
• Grooming maintenance at 3 synthetic fields (March – November)
• Regular removal of dirt and litter
• Removal of any stains, fluid spills or paint
• Use tow behind magnet to remove unwanted metal items
• Removal of any fungus, mold or mildew (via a portable tow behind sprayer)
• Minor synthetic turf repairs
• Remove leaves as needed
• Topdress fields with additional infill as required
• Verti-top annually (tow behind tractor accessory); this removes, sifts and redeposits infill (removes many unseen items including hair)

Turf Maintenance

• Oversee contractual mowing, leaf removal, mulching and pruning at 167 locations
• Oversee departmental mowing at 78 locations, leaf removal at 20 locations and pruning at 50 locations

Turf Management

• Contractually we manage approximately 50 acres of irrigated turf by aerifying, fertilizing, slice seeding and topdressing
• Departmentally we manage approximately 50 acres of non-irrigated athletic turf by aerifying, fertilizing and slice seeding