Rockville is the fifth largest city in Maryland, occupying 13 square miles within the metropolitan Washington D.C. are. The city grounds maintenance crew has established a daily and weekly routine for the crew and hired contractors. Monday through Friday a part time groundskeeper is assigned to pick up litter at seven downtown parks on foot. They are also responsible for inspecting the parks for other problems and reporting back to their crew supervisor.

The U.S. Department of Labor-Bureau of Labor Statistics describes the job of a municipal groundskeeper as the following:

Plan, organize, direct, or coordinate activities of workers engaged in landscaping or grounds keeping activities, such as planting and maintaining ornamental trees, shrubs, flowers, and lawns, and applying fertilizers, pesticides, and other chemicals, according to contract specifications. May also coordinate activities of workers engaged in terracing hillsides, building retaining walls, constructing pathways, installing patios, and similar activities in following a landscape design plan. Work may involve reviewing contracts to ascertain service, machine, and work force requirements; answering inquiries from potential customers regarding methods, material, and price ranges; and preparing estimates according to labor, material, and machine costs.

Accurate? Maybe, but in any case, you have a huge job to do everyday! Unless you?EUR??,,????'???re working in Hoot Owl, Okla., (population zero, according to dataplace.org) nearly all municipal grounds maintenance departments are made up of multiple crews. This involves a lot of organization, paperwork and technology, which incidentally, has replaced almost all paperwork. So with all of these daily tasks to accomplish and different sites to manage, how do they do it and keep things organized? Rob Orndoff, a horticulturist with the City of Rockville, Md., gave us the rundown on his job and how he keeps things running smooth.

Millions of dollars are spent on landscaping city medians alone. The groundskeepers who maintain the medians in Rockville, Md. are required to report back to their supervisors at the end of the work day. Keeping track of workers hours and location is easier than ever with labor tracking software such as Hansen Labor Tracking, Exeba, and TimeSite.

Smooth Sailing?EUR??,,????'???And Mowing

?EUR??,,????'??I maintain multiple sites throughout the City of Rockville in Maryland,?EUR??,,????'?? said Orndoff. ?EUR??,,????'??I have a crew of six, which consists of a crew supervisor, a maintenance worker, three laborers and a part-time groundskeeper.?EUR??,,????'?? Orndorff also manages numerous contractors and has the assistance of a parks maintenance specialist. The parks maintenance specialist and Orndorff use cell phones to keep in contact with one another, while the crew supervisor keeps a pager on-hand. All of the vehicles in their fleet use two-way radios to communicate with each other while on the road or out at various work sites throughout the city.

The parks maintenance specialist, the crew supervisor and Orndorff are each assigned a pick-up truck. The crew uses a F-550 crew cab with a dump bed to transport materials and equipment from site to site.

The city of Rockville currently has two parks under contract maintenance. The contractors are supervised by the park maintenance specialist who makes sure they stick to the letter of the contract and can authorize additional work that may be outside the scope of contract. The parks maintenance specialist is also responsible for supervising contracts such as masonry, irrigation, and chemical turf maintenance.

A Not-So-Mundane Routine

Although Orndorff has established a routine for his crew to follow, it is anything but mundane. They have various sites to visit, and as every groundskeeper and maintenance professional knows, each day brings a whole new set of challenges.

?EUR??,,????'??We have established a daily and weekly routine for both the crew and the contractors,?EUR??,,????'?? said Orndorff. ?EUR??,,????'??Monday through Friday the part time groundskeeper is assigned to pick up litter at seven downtown parks on foot. This person is also responsible for inspecting the parks for other problems and reporting back to the crew supervisor.?EUR??,,????'??

Two-way radios are used by just about every grounds crew. They come in especially handy for municipal crews who are working at multiple sites throughout a city and need to keep in constant contact with each other. This model by Vertex has a bandwidth of 12.5/25kHz, has a battery saver circuit, and is even water resistant.

The crew?EUR??,,????'???s weekly routine requires that they visit 20 areas at least once a week; each park has its own specific day. If more work is required than time allows, the crew’s schedule is flexible enough to allow for changes. The crew supervisor may or may not stay with the crew depending on workload. The crew supervisor will visit the other parks to inspect and plan future maintenance activities and complete paperwork.

The maintenance crew for the city of Rockville, Md. has a weekly routine that requires them to visit 20 areas at least once a week; each park has its own specific day. If more work is required than time allows, the crew's schedule is flexible enough to allow for changes. The crew supervisor, may or may not stay with the crew depending on workload.

Keeping Track With Technology

The days of messy notebooks, ledgers and spreadsheets are numbered. Software to help organize budgets and staff is readily available and relatively user-friendly. The City of Rockville adopted the Hansen Labor Tracking software program to keep track of man-hours, materials, and work orders. This replaced a simple spreadsheet program.

Packages such as Hansen, VHB?EUR??,,????'???s Infrastructure 2000, and CarteGraph provide inventory, parts tracking, maintenance management/work orders, cost-tracking, chemical/fertilizer applications and record keeping, budgeting and forecasting, equipment maintenance, inventory control, work order scheduling, personnel records, and budgeting capabilities. These monitoring tools are part of signals or broader ITS management and control software packages; some of these tools (e.g., Siemens i2tms) include links to signal timing optimization software.

Here the city landscaping crew in Rockville, Md. cleans up after trimming a tree in Veterans Park. Ron Orndorff, horticulturist for Rockville, oversees the installation of approximately 500 street trees.

Contract Maintenance

The city of Rockville currently has two parks under contract maintenance with a third coming on line in Spring 2007. The contractors provide complete landscape maintenance on a weekly basis and is very cost competitive with in-house staff. The contractors are supervised by the park maintenance specialist who must make sure they adhere to the letter of the contract and can authorize additional work that may be outside the scope of contract.

The parks maintenance specialist is also responsible for supervising various specialized contracts such as masonry, irrigation, annual installation, and chemical turf maintenance (fertilizer).

Vehicles like this Ford F550 truck are used by the city of Rockville, Md. to transport crew members as well as their equipment from location to location. These types of vehicles can be fitted with various attachments to suit the needs of the maintenance crew.

?EUR??,,????'??My responsibilities as the horticulturist are to see that everyone has the materials, direction, and training to carryout a yearlong program,?EUR??,,????'?? said Orndorff. ?EUR??,,????'??This includes the design and installation of 120 seasonal beds for spring bulbs and summer annuals, the installation of an average of 500 street trees, writing and reviewing contracts, and supervision laborers at the city’s special events. I am also involved in major city projects and manage a budget of $659,000 including multiple capital improvement projects.?EUR??,,????'??