Parks and Rec puts in extra hours after snowy winter

Crews from the Parks and Recreation Department have put in extra hours this spring to clean up trails after the large amount of snowfall Columbia saw this winter.

Gabe Huffington, parks services manager, said crews having been working for the last two to three months to get the trails ready for warmer months.

He said the big snowfall in Columbia this winter caused crews to spend more time picking up debris from the trails than some winters in the past. The weight of the snow and ice broke many limbs which crews and volunteers have to pick up on the miles of trails. Crews spent two days picking up limbs on the MKT Trail alone.

“We saw the weight of that snow do a lot of damage on pines and cedars throughout our park system,” Huffington said.

Marissa Wood walks the trails in Columbia almost daily. She said she noticed the effects this winter had.

“Just a lot of fallen trees and downed branches and things like that. Things disturbing the trail and interrupting the paths,” Wood said.

She said the parks department reacted quickly in fixing the big problem areas.

“It was like within a couple weeks that it was all gone,” she said. “I saw them out here with all their equipment getting things out of the way for us.”

The department also had to put in more hours plowing and clearing off concrete trails during the snow.

Despite the extra hours, Huffington said the cost of maintenance this year should not be much higher than years in the past.

Since the start of December, Parks and Recreation has spent around $4,000 on maintenance for gravel trails and $13,000 for concrete trails.

He said the cost of repair and maintenance on concrete trails is generally lower because they do not see things such as wash outs when Columbia gets heavy rain.

Huffington said even though winter weather has ended here, crews still have work to do in order to keep the trails safe for people who use them.

Crews work almost year-round cleaning out invasive species such as honeysuckle. They will also continue their daily and weekly checks on the trails.

“If we need to clean anything up from rain events that’s what we’re going to experience for the next couple of months,” he said.

He said crews will also repaint and put in new signs as they are needed.

If trail users see a problem they want to report they can use the city’s website at www.como.gov under the recreation tab.