Have you ever considered how much time goes into managing Burien’s green spaces?
Burien is home to roughly 419 acres of parks and open spaces that are managed by the City of Burien’s Parks, Recreation & Cultural Services Department (PaRCS).
A total of 28 parks, trails, and facilities are open to the public year-round, each requiring ongoing supervision, cleaning, and maintenance. On average, up to two hours are spent cleaning park restrooms and opening parks every day (including some litter pickup), and an hour and a half to two hours are spent closing parks.
Parks and Facility Maintenance Worker Alexis Williams understands the importance of showing up to work every day.
“You want to make sure all park equipment is up to par,” said Williams, who has been with the City for four years. “If people ride by and see a clean park, they’ll be more apt to come out and enjoy themselves.”
On average, park maintenance workers spend about nine hours per day handling garbage, picking up litter, and removing debris, which translates to about 30 minutes per park. When the crews encounter larger messes, it can take an additional four to eight hours to address, and general graffiti can add another half hour to their workload.
Currently, the park maintenance crew consists of nine full-time members who support the mission to enrich and inspire the Burien community through high-quality experiences, people, and places. Throughout the year, the crew averages 14 operating hours daily, which fluctuates from an average of 11.5 in the winter to 16.5 in the summer.
Williams shares that his weekly routine includes being on-site at 28 parks, which can be very demanding, but he can usually cover them in just two days. While he is aware of the responsibilities he signed up for, excess litter and graffiti often add extra work to his schedule.
“The challenge that I face on a daily [basis] is excessive litter … people put trash on the ground,” said Williams. “If graffiti is there, it stops me from doing other work that’s on my schedule, and I have to stop and take care of it.”
Parks Maintenance Supervisor Lisa Aumann started as an administrative assistant with the City in 1996, just three years after its incorporation. She partially credits her longevity to her team, sharing that she works “with a really great group of people that care about their jobs, care about the community, and show up every day.”
The PaRCS Department works together to create a healthy and vibrant city with opportunities for physical activity and enrichment.
Aumann believes that it is essential to maintain safe and clean parks because they serve as welcoming areas for the public.
“You think about somebody that may not have a yard, but when they’re out and about in the community, that green space — whether our ball fields or our regional park, Seahurst Park — that’s their outdoor space,” said Aumann. “The community owns it. You want to make sure that the welcome mat is out for people to come and want to participate in the park, their park.”
One of the newest members of the crew, Parks Maintenance Worker Chelsea Thompson, shares that being a parent gives her a different perspective on her work, as she views it through the eyes of a local who visits the parks with her daughter in her off time. She explained that parks belong to everyone and are a place where all can experience nature unfiltered.
“It’s important to keep a clean space to make sure kids aren’t getting into stuff that is dangerous or unsanitary,” said Thompson. “When you come here to get away from stuff or to relax, you don’t want to have to think about stepping over trash, that detracts from the experience.”
But the job isn’t without its perks, Thompson admits. “Almost everything we do is visible, so you can look back after a day of work and see the effect that you’ve had and know that you’ve made the park nice for people to use. To be able to serve our community and make sure that the parks are nice and safe and welcoming for people is incredibly rewarding.”
Another veteran member of the team is Parks Maintenance Lead Honorio Mireles. According to Aumann, his supervisor, he is “fantastic” and has become her right-hand person since he joined the City seven years ago. Aumann says she couldn’t do this job without him.
“Honorio worked his way up and got promoted to the lead position,” said Aumann. “To describe Honorio, he is calm — the polar opposite of me — and very knowledgeable. He takes his time to teach people what they need to know in a safe way.”
Mireles has 35 years of experience in park management. He confessed he initially wasn’t sure where life would take him but couldn’t see himself doing anything else now.
“I am here because I like what I do,” said Mireles. “I didn’t [originally] know what I wanted for myself. I started this work, enjoyed it, and with something one likes to work in every day, you’re kept busy, and motivated to do your work.”
Some of the busiest times of the year are during the summer, when students are out of school on vacation and parks experience an increase in traffic. Last summer, park maintenance responded to more than 40 instances of extra garbage, litter, and debris in the parks outside of the routine daily work.
Mireles explained how important it is for his crew to be on and ready for the day’s work.
“We have to check [park sites] every day constantly, depending on how much traffic we have,” said Mireles. “Seahurst Park has rentals in the summertime, [crews] have to go up to three times a day to pick up trash in the morning, noon, and four o’clock in the afternoon, and then close. We have to do it every day in order to keep them clean. If we don’t do it constantly, we won’t have any clean places.”
Aumann shared that a highlight of her job is serving the community and hearing their feedback. She also has some requests for future park visitors and hopes their direct action can ensure future generations will be able to enjoy Burien’s green spaces.
“Things that are super important [are] that people are paying attention to the expectations of using an outdoor space, placing garbage in a garbage receptacle, and cleaning up after themselves so that the next people can enjoy the space equally as well,” said Aumann. “Let us know if there’s something going on that may seem important or out of character. We can’t see every inch of every park every day.”
The tight-knit park maintenance crew all agreed that the best thing the community can do is to come out and enjoy these green spaces.
“I’m a firm believer that using the parks for their intended purpose and having people come out and spend time in our parks deters a lot of the undesirable behavior,” shared Thompson. “Just people being present, being aware of where your trash is, making sure you put it in a receptacle and clean up after your pets, things like that. If everybody does their part, it makes it a lot better for everybody.”
Williams echoed the sentiment of becoming active in nature. “Be a park steward,” said Williams. “Pick up trash if you see it. Sit on a park bench and say, ‘You know, this is mine. I own this.’”
Community members can report any issues found in a park by using the online Report an Issue Form at burienwa.gov/report.
