In the perfect world, our park maintenance budgets would have the funds to complete everyday operations, necessary repairs, and improvement projects. However, the reality of limited budgets has many maintenance managers making tough decisions about what needs to get done and what needs to be deferred until more funds are available.
Of course, regularly putting off work can create a backlog that will affect the conditions of parks, playgrounds, facilities, and equipment.
Maintenance managers often need to find creative ways to stretch their budgets and find new ways to fund their repairs and projects.
In this article, we look at how park maintenance managers can navigate limited budgets and still complete the work necessary for safe, functioning, aesthetically pleasing community resources.
Understanding Where Budget Dollars Are Going
Before determining effective budget management, you must understand how money gets spent. For example, if reactive maintenance repairs are draining the budget, a more effective preventative maintenance plan may help reduce the costs of expensive repairs.
Also, measuring and understanding task standards allows supervisors to schedule tasks and routes more effectively, ensuring less time gets wasted.
Once you have a clear view of your operating budget, you can start to see opportunities to be creative and stretch the funds to get more done.
Create/Refine Maintenance Plan
Preventative maintenance will save your maintenance team time and money. Catching a minor issue before a major breakdown saves on costly repairs, emergency closings, canceled programming, and maintenance team schedule disruptions.
A maintenance plan is your roadmap to steering away from reactive maintenance and towards a proactive asset management approach. An effective plan inventories the assets and outlines the tasks to care for them properly.
Once you create a maintenance plan, it will eventually need revisions. After all, you’ll get new equipment, and your assets will change. If your maintenance plan does not reflect this, it may be back to the unpredictable, chaotic world of reactive maintenance.
Prioritize Maintenance Tasks
Prioritizing tasks allows your team to focus on what is absolutely necessary and then tackle the less pressing jobs as time allows. For example, one way to categorize tasks can be:
- Emergency Tasks: Urgent health and safety problems that can have devastating consequences if ignored. A leaking roof, loose railings by stairways, or a dead tree branch hanging over a busy walkway.
- High-Priority Tasks: Items that may affect operations in the near future, like changing a worn riding mower wheel or preparing for scheduled special events or programming.
- Medium-Priority Tasks: Preventative maintenance and tasks that can eventually lead to operations or programming issues, such as changing HVAC filters, ordering supplies, and getting oil changes for the fleet.
- Low-Priority Tasks: Tasks that have some significance but won’t affect day-to-day operations if they get deferred. In other words, tasks that can be used as fill-in work. For example, repainting a multipurpose room in a community center or installing shelving in an office.
When prioritizing and scheduling tasks, consider the potential impact if this work isn’t done and the value it provides to your agency. Also, consider the time required to complete the task and the proximity to your crew for the day.
For example, if your crew is doing a high-priority repair at one of your more remote assets, then if time allows, take care of some medium to low-priority tasks while they are there to save a future trip.
Use Cost-Effective Materials
Sometimes, extra money upfront can create recurring savings on maintenance costs. For example, opting for a recycled plastic picnic table may seem pricey. They can cost more than double that of a wood picnic bench. However, that extra cost may seem worth it when considering the overall maintenance costs of these two benches.
A recycled plastic picnic table usually only requires a quick power wash. A wooden table may need refinishing or slats replaced as it ages. Depending on its exposure to the public and weather conditions, a wooden picnic table may last about ten years, whereas a recycled plastic bench can last decades. The recycled plastic picnic table also retains that new look longer.
So, the initial cost may be steeper, but when you look at the benches’ lifetime maintenance costs, that extra investment can save the department significant money.
Explore Other Funding Sources
Exploring other funding sources can bring creative opportunities to secure extra budget dollars.
Grants can be a great way to secure funding. The National Parks and Recreation Association and related state associations offer grants or list grant opportunities from government agencies, private businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Depending on the grant, funds can be used for capital projects, programming, grant-specific initiatives, and community outreach.
Sponsorships with local businesses or larger companies can also secure funding. For example, advertising space on ballfield fencing, park benches, signage, and other areas offers opportunities for recurring funding and to develop partnerships with the private sector.
Similarly, creative fundraisers where the public pays a small fee to participate in activities can be a source of extra money for special projects or initiatives.
Get the marketing department involved, too. Social media campaigns can highlight some financial needs of the maintenance department and promote fundraisers that benefit park maintenance.
Create Volunteer Opportunities
Volunteers can be a great source of free labor. A volunteer group can help take care of some of the lower-priority work your team has been putting off or some seasonal tasks like spreading mulch, pulling weeds, or reorganizing a storage room.
Of course, what they can do depends on the type of volunteer group, their schedule, and their reason for volunteering. Like your staff, volunteers will have their own sets of strengths and shortcomings. Understanding your volunteer or volunteer group and pairing them with a task that resonates with them and needs to get done can open doors for more long-term opportunities.
Make the Community Aware
The quickest and cheapest way to take care of a problem is not having it happen or catching it early. That’s not always possible, especially if your maintenance team has limited staff, but having an extra set of eyes–the public’s–on your assets may alert your team to potential problems before they become big deals.
For example, we’ve all seen that graffiti attracts more graffiti. Unless spotted early and addressed, you can soon have a real mess to clean. Make the community aware of the importance of quick graffiti removal. Provide an easy way to report new graffiti so the maintenance team can stay on top of it.
The Takeaway
Taking creative approaches to managing budget shortfalls helps a park maintenance team secure the resources needed to maintain parks and facilities. By understanding current spending habits, refining and prioritizing the maintenance plan, deciding when it is wise to invest in other tools and materials, and finding alternate ways to secure funding and encourage community participation, you can find some solutions to operating with a limited budget.