By Karen Stretch, regional editor

The city of West Palm Beach, Fla., founded in 1894, boasts more than 40 parks and public spaces and has a total area of 58.2 square miles. Until the 1960s, the city was only a few blocks wide, but more than 100 blocks in length. With improved access and drainage, the city finally expanded.

West Palm Beach, Fla. is a long way from Liberia, Africa (4,782 miles to be exact) which is where Laban Reeves, assistant director of parks and recreation for the city of West Palm Beach is from.

Reeves came to the United States to attend college in Alabama at Tuskegee University where he earned a masters degree in plants and soil science. After getting his degree, Reeves eventually relocated to West Palm Beach where he got a job working as a laborer for the city.

After two months, Reeves was transferred to a position in a cemetery where he worked for nearly five years until he was promoted to urban forestry supervisor for the city. Another four years went by and Reeves was promoted again to assistant grounds operation superintendent, a position that was eventually changed to his current position as assistant director of parks and recreation, a title he has held for about seven years.

?EUR??,,????'??Anywhere you go in this world, if you go there with an open mind, there are good and bad qualities in people. You learn how to live within that environment the best you can and cohabitate the best that you can,?EUR??,,????'?? said Reeves.

A line trimmer is used to clean up the area around an arboricola. The crew maintains a variety of shrubs including: ligustrum, silver buttonwood, viburnum, podocarpus and ficus.

A Day in the Life

Reeves begins each day by checking in with the team leaders of each division ?EUR??,,????'??? one division is parks and the other is recreation. He checks their schedules for the day and then goes to meetings and attends to other administrative duties. Later he may go into the field and do some field inspection to check that the area is being maintained according to the department?EUR??,,????'???s standards. Reeves also checks to make certain that there are no safety issues that could be a problem and a potential liability.

Palm trees are trimmed by a crew member using a cherry picker. Palms are found in abundance throughout Florida, although most of the species found there are not native to the area.

Areas of Maintenance

The city of West Palm Beach is 58.2 square miles. Within that area are 40 parks, 66.1 acres of road right-of-ways, 30.5 acres of canal banks and two flood control structures that Reeves and his crew are responsible for maintaining. In addition, the crew is also responsible for taking care of the grounds at the police department, train station, six fire stations, the water treatment plant, and 100 re-pump and lift states ?EUR??,,????'??? about 500 acres total, talk about busy!

The city maintenance crews used to only maintain the right-of-ways. Within the parks are facilities and recreation centers and other amenities. The department has a forestry section, a facilities section, and irrigation section and a grounds maintenance section. They also have two cemeteries that they are responsible for managing.

A crew member mows the grass in a West Palm Beach park using a Scag ride-on mower. Ninety-nine percent of the mowers used are ride-on models. The turf is overseeded with St. Augustine, floratam, Bermudagrass and bahia.

Reeves places great emphasis on working together as a team to get the job done well. ?EUR??,,????'??We encourage team work a lot,?EUR??,,????'?? said Reeves. ?EUR??,,????'??We have to rely on each other to get the job done.?EUR??,,????'??

Working with such a diverse group of professionals, technical and general workers is, according to Reeves, very, very challenging. However, the payoff is rewarding.

There are 17 athletic fields to maintain in West Palm Beach. Here, a Smithco G-Star is used to grade the infield. Toro sentinel clocks are used to control the irrigation systems at 31 of the city of parks.

?EUR??,,????'??We have the ability to improve and enhance the natural environment,?EUR??,,????'?? Reeves remarked. ?EUR??,,????'??And we are able to provide safe, visually pleasing athletic fields for our youth.?EUR??,,????'??

Taking Care of Turf

The ground maintenance department works toward irrigating, mowing and fertilizing the turf at various locations in two-week intervals. Their mower fleet is made up of Skag, Hustler and Toro?EUR??,,????'???s. Ninety-nine percent of the mowers the crew uses are ride-on models.

Roundup is sprayed in strategic locations to help control weeds. The West Palm Beach maintenance orders chemicals on an ?EUR??,,????'??as-needed?EUR??,,????'?? basis to avoid storing a large volume of chemicals.

St. Augustine florotam/palmetto seed is used to overseed the 17 athletic fields the crew maintains. During the winter, some overseeding is done using ryegrass.

Turf is fertilized using 16-4-8, 15-2-15 and 24-6-8. The fertilizing schedule is determined by the budget. The turf in the parks is fertilized twice a year while the athletic fields are generally done four times a year.

Irrigation is done using Toro sentinel clocks ?EUR??,,????'??? a computerized system that the city started using 3-4 years ago. Not all of the parks have made the switch to the system, but there are 31 clocks being used so far. In addition to the Toro?EUR??,,????'???s, the city also uses Rainbird EST. Approximately 6 million gallons of water is used to irrigate West Palm Beach?EUR??,,????'???s landscape each day. Most of the irrigation systems use well water and potable water.

Here the clay is leveled on a walking trail around a multi-purpose field at South Olive Park. The crew is also responsible for taking care of the grounds at the police department, train station, six fire stations, the water treatment plant, and 100 re-pump and lift stations ?EUR??,,????'??? about 500 acres total.

Chemicals

Like most grounds maintenance crews, the city of West Palm Beach tries to keep as little chemicals on-hand as they can. But for broadleaf, Roundup is used which Reeves says takes care of most of the weeds they encounter like nutsedge, goosegrass and torpedo grass. Specific areas in the park are sprayed to help control these pesky plants.

Chemicals are ordered quarterly on an as-needed basis. Every two years the city bids with another municipality using a core-abated system. They then determine which vendor they will use.

Trees, Shrubs and Ornamentals

Hurricane season has grown increasingly devastating over the past few years. The tree population of West Palm Beach has certainly suffered the effects. Reeves says that the tree inventory shrank by 200 after hurricane?EUR??,,????'???s Francis, Jean and Wilma hit the area.

Most of the trees that Reeves and his crew maintain are evergreens. They include: mahagony, live oak, three types of ficus, royal palms (which Reeves was quick to point out, are not really trees), peach and plum trees, crepe myrtle, jacaranda, queen palms, Alexander palms, washingtonia palms, laurel oaks and gumbo limbo. Shrubs include: ligustrum, silver buttonwood, viburnum and podocarpus.

The grounds maintenance department plants a total of 20,000 annuals that are changed out twice a year, once in the fall and again in the late spring. Types of flowers vary from year to year, but typically you can find impatiens, begonias, snapdragons, caladium and coleus growing in the flower beds of West Palm Beach. The department tries to stick with plants that are native to Florida in order to extend their life as long as possible.

The ornamentals get a feeding using fertilizer mixes of 14-14-14 and 13-2-13. Sometimes they amend the annuals by using 20-20-20.

Flora of the West Palm Beach Wild Flower Program

Laban Reeves, assistant director of parks and recreation for the city of West Palm Beach has developed a love for wildflowers. So much so that he has begun efforts to start a wildflower program in West Palm Beach. There is even a beautification committee that has started planting wildflowers in right-of-ways in addition to the flowers Reeves has planted himself in the city parks.

Cosmos bipinnatus

Gaillardia pulchella

Echinacea purpurea

Rudbeckia cordoba

Ratibida columnari

Helianthus debilis