Park Operations

As park professionals many of us are making the difficult decisions of what services and amenities we can continue to provide to the public. The Park Operations Resource Group has created a central spreadsheet to track the service impacts to various communities. Follow this link to access the spreadsheet, which is accessible for anyone to view and update. This spreadsheet relies on input provided by everyone, so if you use it for information please add yours for others to use.

For questions or technical issues, please contact Alister Perkinson at 757-207-0002.

The Park Operations Resource Group offers information, education, and networking opportunities for those professionals in the areas of park operations, park management, and field maintenance.

For more information, please contact:

Dan Smith, CPRP, Deputy Director, Hanover County Parks and Recreation, [email protected]
Patti McGrath, CPRP, BUSINESS MANAGER, HANOVER COUNTY Parks AND Recreation, [email protected]

To join Park Operations Resource, update your VRPS member profile using the instructions below.

Meeting Minutes

PORG minutes 7.15.21 meeting

PORG Database

The Park Operations Resource Group has developed a database for all VRPS members to use as a resource. This database highlights the skills of our membership and other professionals for park operations resources. Any member of VRPS can enter themselves or someone that has a specific skill; that person listed does not need to be a member of VRPS but the person listing individuals needs to be a member, and should have consent of those that are listed to be called or emailed for advice in their given skill area. This database will be updated each year to ensure that all contacts and specialty areas remain current. When looking at the spreadsheet please note the tabs at the bottom as they will direct you to the general area where skills are listed. People may be listed in multiple areas based on their skills as well as multiple people on the same subject matter, “the more the merrier”. This is to be used for educational purposes only and VRPS does not endorse any person, product or service contained in the database. Please use the link provided to access the google spreadsheet.

PORG Database

Information Concerning Glyphosate (Roundup)

PORG has received a number of inquiries from members concerning Glyphosate use by Maintenance staff in Parks and Recreation. Staff using the chemical or supervising those using the chemical are legitimately concerned about possible long term health effects of the weed killer. We have found a number of articles and links for information concerning this current debate of whether Glyphosate is safe or not. The links here approach the issue in an objective way and are just presenting facts as they are currently. This debate will undoubtedly continue and agencies may want to be have as much information as possible when the question comes from staff, local citizens and politicians in your area concerning its use by your agency. Virginia Tech and the Virginia Cooperative Extension has produced some excellent material that should aid in understanding the issue.

Glyphosate: Health Controversy, Benefits and Continuing Debate Glyphosate Q&A

Education Corner

From our friends at Virginia Tech and the Virginia Sports Turf Managers Association, here are a couple of really useful links for calendars for sport turf management for the coming year:

Bermuda Grass fields: https://tinyurl.com/BermudaSportsFieldMtncCalendar
Cool season grass fields: https://tinyurl.com/CoolSeasonSportsTurfMtncCalndr