NRPA Benchmark Survey, April 2009

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The cracked and deteriorated court surface at the Echo Hollow tennis courts will be renovated during FYI 0, with new asphalt overlay and court surfacing and other improvements at the facility. Additional rehabilitation projects are planned for the aging playgrounds at Bond Lane and State Street Park. These older park play facilities, which have required increasing maintenance inputs for several years, will be replaced with new play equipment and new fall protective surfacing material. At a time when the park inventory has grown faster than the operations funding for the system, rehabilitation and renovation are an effective strategy for managing maintenance requirements in the system. New Goals Focus On Improving Urban Forestry Service Two new goals identified in the Urban Forestry Service Profile will continue to guide tree work in Eugene for the next several years. These core processes for managing public trees are: 1) focus pruning work on trees six inches in diameter or less; and 2) continue emphasis on completion of the street tree inventory. These goals are consistent with current efforts to reduce the risk of limb failure through preventative pruning and to reduce the risk of tree failure through systematic and intense tree inspections to identify and assess potential hazards. By transitioning from request pruning to an emphasis on young tree pruning, public safety is better protected as proper tree form and structure will be assured, helping prevent future branch and whole tree failures. This goal will be addressed by dedicating increasing portions of staff time to scheduled, preventive maintenance pruning. Another approach will see continued expansion of the Tree Stewards volunteer pruning program. With three trained groups already actively pruning young trees in Saturday work parties, an estimated 500 to 1,000 street trees will be pruned each year in addition to the number pruned by City staff. Outreach through this initiative will continue to support neighborhood involvement and volunteer work in providing improved stewardship of the City's trees. More than 40,000 street trees have been inventoried using the City's ArcGIS- platform software program, TreeWorks. Urban Forestry staff will work with temporary employees and volunteers to continue data collection, with a target of completing the inventory of an estimated 100,000 trees in 201 1 . The tree inventory has been added as a layer on the City's GeoDART program, making tree information available to all City departments. Increased program efficiencies have already been realized in several key areas, and expanded use of the program in day -to -day work order and reporting processes is planned. Presentations of inventory information about tree species, age distribution, and condition will continue to be made to neighborhood associations and other groups. This is intended to acquaint citizens with program services and encourage volunteerism and partnership development at the local neighborhood level. Attracting and Sustaining a Skilled and Motivated Workforce Over the next five years, it is likely that a larger percentage of the organization's workforce will retire than in almost any other five year period in the organization's history. These retirements will bring both opportunities and challenges for the POS Division. Vacancies due to retirement will provide opportunities for managers to assess how staffing resources are allocated, and potentially implement organizational changes to reflect new priorities. Overall, there will likely be many opportunities for staff to apply for different positions as they become vacant due to retirement. On the other hand, these retirements will result in a loss of institutional knowledge and a significant amount of position vacancies, which will take time to fill. This will result in a loss of efficiency across the division and increase the workloads of staff while new employees are recruited, hired, and trained.