By CARL E. FEATHER - Staff Writer - cfeather@starbeacon.com
ASHTABULA TOWNSHIP — When Lake Shore Park guests come to Crafts in the Park this weekend, or the Rib Burn-off Sept. 19 and 20, they’ll enjoy a well-manicured, clean park that’s the pride of Bill Scoville and his crew.
Scoville is grounds foreman for the Ashtabula Township Park Commission. He has only one other full-time employee: Fred Rodriguez. The rest of his crew are part-time/ seasonal workers who take care of both Lake Shore Park and Indian Trails Park in the Ashtabula River Gulf.
A county native, Scoville grew up enjoying Lake Shore Park and was picnicking there when he was approached by park commissioners about going to work for them. The part-time seasonal work fit well with what Scoville was doing at the time: helping his family run a bowling alley in North Kingsville.
“I always liked to work outdoors,” says Scoville, who started his career at the park as a grounds-crew member.
Looking back on the way things were when he started at the park, Scoville said the commission had only one newer tractor and an old Ford, plus weed-whackers and push mowers.
“Every year, the commissioners have upgraded, and we now have two John Deere tractors, that old Ford and a John Deere zero-turn mower,” says Scoville, whose duties include maintaining that equipment. “And we have a bunch of weed-whackers. There is a lot of weed eating in this park. People don’t realize that.”
There are also a lot of hills, which present special challenges to mowing. Scoville prefers that maintenance workers alternate mowing directions each time they cut the grass, but on the steepest hills, the only way to go is up and down. Very few places are mowed with a push mower; if the tractors can’t get to the grass, the workers usually bring out the weed-whackers.
Scoville says they try to get the mowing done Monday through Thursday, when park attendance is low. This summer, it’s been a challenge to stay ahead of the grass, but Scoville says they’ve been successful and should have the park looking good for both events, if the weather cooperates with his schedule.
He estimates that the burn-off crowd is the largest the park hosts all year, surpassing even those of hot summer holidays and weekends. Offering free admission, parking and entertainment, the event’s popularity is understandable.
Scoville will work the burn-off and keep an eye on the overall appearance and safety of the park. Restrooms will be checked hourly to make sure they are clean, and garbage containers will be emptied as soon as they are half full.
“We really haven’t had problems; we stay on top of it. You are never going to see an overflowing garbage can down there,” he says.
The most frequent complaint Scoville and other workers hear deals with something beyond their control: Canada goose droppings.
“It’s a lot of maintenance for us,” says Scoville. “Around the duck pond, we wash down the sidewalk at least once a week.”
Droppings are swept up regularly from sidewalks as well, but Scoville says it’s hard to get completely around the duck pond before geese repeat their performance.
The duck pond itself is a high-maintenance item, and Scoville is still testing different approaches to controlling the algae with chemicals and aeration. Another high-maintenance and popular area is the rock garden.
“That’s a full-time job,” he says. “Weeds, trimming the shrubbery. It’s a lot of work down here. There is so much to do every day; (it) never ends.”
Scoville sees many things in the park that need attention, things that the average visitor doesn’t notice. For example, the roads are showing their age and need significant investment. And the park is losing its large trees to disease and weather at an alarming pace. Recent ice storms took out 15 to 20 mature trees.
“We planted 15 trees last fall,” he says. “Fifty years from now, kids aren’t going to have trees down here; it will be all vacant land.”
Scoville says the crew does the best it can with the money it has to work with.
“You can go on and on about what the park needs, but it all comes down to funds,” he says.
Pride in the park keeps Scoville and his crew motivated, as do the comments they hear.
“That’s all you get: how nice the park looks, ‘You are doing a great job,’” he says of the comments. “I had three people from out of the area recently tell me it is the nicest place on Lake Erie to go to.”
“The guys we have working down here, they take a lot of pride in what they do,” he adds. “They all love this park, too. It gives citizens someplace to go, a place they can be proud of to take their out-of-town guests and family.”
online: lakeshorepark ashtabula.org
