October 2018 - Parks & Recreation - 77

Member Spotlight:
Patrick Marron
By Vitisia Paynich

rowing up in Helena, Montana, Patrick Marron spent much of his
spare time at the park across the street from his house - playing on
the playground equipment and engaging in sports with his friends. As
a high school student, Marron spent summer vacations as a seasonal employee for Helena Parks and Recreation, assisting the park maintenance staff by
mowing lawns and trimming trees and plants. It's a job he thoroughly enjoyed.
In college, Marron earned an associate's degree in fire science with
the goal of becoming a firefighter.
However, his love for the great outdoors would steer him back to parks
and recreation. In 2009, he rejoined
Helena Parks and Recreation as a
full-time maintenance worker and
gradually worked his way up to
maintenance supervisor in 2016.
Parks & Recreation magazine recently sat down with Marron to
discuss his role at Helena Parks
and Recreation, how social equity
plays a part in his work and why
he doesn't see himself changing careers anytime soon.

Parks & Recreation: Tell
us about your position
with Helena Parks and
Recreation.
Marron: As the maintenance supervisor, I'm in charge of day-to-day
operations for park landscapes,
hardscapes, playgrounds athletic
fields and sports courts. We have
a pool and a couple of buildings
that we also maintain. It's my job
to make sure the crew is working
safely and getting things taken care
of for the public. Depending on
the size of the park project, we do
a lot of in-house design for irrigation, playgrounds and landscaping.

Of course, if it's a bigger project
that requires a lot of engineering,
we'll subcontract that out, but we
do quite a bit of landscape design.
In the past 10 years, we've put in
a lot of playgrounds. Right now,
we're doing a big park remodel and
working with user groups and outside entities on designing it.

P&R: How does social equity
fit into what you do?
Marron: Anytime we put in playgrounds, buildings - anything that
the public is going to have a lot of interaction with - we definitely want
to make sure all groups can access
them. We take into account the history of a neighborhood and what the
people of that neighborhood want to
see and then we tailor those amenities to each area, depending on the
park and the neighborhood it's in.
For the past three years, we've been
working on a vacant lot located in
an underserved community, and we
have turned it into an edible garden.
We've had a lot of community involvement with the park's design and
maintenance, because we want those
folks to be more involved and take
ownership of the park.
We had another unique situation
here in Helena with regard to social
equity. Helena had a fountain in one

of our parks that was dedicated to
the city by 'The United Daughters of
the Confederacy.' It was the Northern-most Confederate monument.
The city commission decided to remove the fountain last summer because of other incidents around the
country. It created some controversy,
but the city was successful in removing it. Multiple groups are now working together to design a new 'Equity
Fountain' to replace the Confederate
fountain. Other Confederate monuments/statues have been removed,
but this will be the first Confederate monument to be replaced with
something new promoting unity.

P&R: What challenges do
you face with regard to
accessibility?
Marron: Everybody definitely wants
more access. One challenge that we
face here in Helena is we're running
out of available green space within the city limits. Our biggest need
is probably more athletic fields for
programs and other adult athletics.
Unfortunately, we don't have a lot
of room for big, open fields. We also
have a great trail system that people
just love, but they want more access
to those trails, which can create its
own set of problems.

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October 2018 - Parks & Recreation

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