June 5, 2024 • 46 mins
Season 1, Episode 4: Chief of Culture & Recreation Doug Bylund and Horticulturalist Supervisor Angie Buchanan join "Indy Unplugged" for an engaging conversation that highlights the quality of life initiatives the City of Indianola has as it relates to the City’s parks, trails, cultural and leisure activities, and beautification efforts throughout the community, among other topics.
Tune in to listen to Doug and Angie as they explain their roles with the City and Indianola Parks & Recreation Department, learn more about the master plans that are guiding the community through next steps, upcoming events and opportunities for residents and visitors alike to enjoy, and so much more.
Fast-forward to a specific topic covered:
- 00:00-00:41: Intro
- 00:42-05:38: Welcome & Guest Backgrounds
- 05:39-09:48: Open Space Master Plan
- 09:49-16:15: Current State of Parks & Wonder on Buxton Project
- 16:16-25:17: Beautification Efforts in Indianola, Buxton Park & Favorite Spots
- 25:18-31:16: Disc Golf Pro Tour Event & Exploring Pickard Park
- 31:17-38:12: Veterans Memorial Aquatic Center & Pool Reminders
- 38:13-39:50: Future Amenities & Next Steps for the Pool
- 39:51-42:31: Upcoming Opportunities at Activity Center, Library, Wellness Campus & More
- 42:32-45:27: Final Thoughts & Remarks
- 45:28-46:52: Closing
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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[Music]
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Welcome to Indy Unplugged, the podcast that's your front row seat to the real talk of Indianola.
I'm Aaron Young, your friendly neighborhood host, and we're diving deep into unfiltered
stories, candid chats and the nitty-gritty of our vibrant city. Think of this as a crash
course in all things Indianola. No fancy jargon, just real conversations. So get comfy, hit that
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play button, and let's explore the heart and soul of our community together on Indy Unplugged.
Alright welcome back to another episode of Indy Unplugged, the City of Indianola podcast, and we are
actually on location it's our first ever albeit this is only our fourth or fifth podcast episode
but we are actually out in the elements we are at Memorial Park and it's very fitting because
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we are with two awesome individuals from the City of Indianola's Parks and Recreation Department,
Doug Bylund and Angie Buchanan. How are you guys doing it's so great to kind of be out and I'm very jealous
How are you guys doing? It's so great to kind of be out and I'm very jealous
of really both of you and your entire department because you get to be outdoors working in probably
probably the best and/or worst location depending on the elements but I'm I always want to get out
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and enjoy myself. Let's make him come work on the ball field in the middle of a thunderstorm hey I
did tell Brandon when I was back in my one of my previous lives I would get on the The Mower and
I would do uh cut the grass for baseball and softball fields and do some chalking and I I
love that bit so or shov snow in the winter I mean let's not go that far or even plant or even plant
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the medians in the mud that's fun too y I would love to get my hands dirty rather than always
documenting and um celebrating the stories of our staff and the work that comes into it to serve
our community but whenever you need an extra body like just let me know I may or may not show up use
yeah well let's just get to know you both a little bit further I mean talking about your
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roles with the city and kind of your history um in the department Doug let's just start with you
how long have you worked for the city and what do you what do you do for the city so I started in
November of 1998 so almost 26 years as a youth Sports Coordinator at the time um it was even
part-time then so it was pretty fun in charge of softball basketball soccer for Youth Of course at
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the time then it transition into all sports and then Recreation superintendent and then now well
before that Parks and Recreation director and now recently chief of culture and recreation so
trying to work through the library and you know the wellness campus and Parks and Recreation
Department kind of all grouped together as quality of life initiatives that the city has what's that
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transformation been like with your role now being that chief of culture and recreation has it been
kind of easy to help kind of bring on board with the library and the wellness campus because of
that you know quality of life from the cultural and recreational services or have there been kind
of some challenges because you know we are just a few months into that that whole change what's
what's that been like now yeah so overall it's been really good the all of our departments that
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are dealing with quality of life and the city as a whole has the same Mission as serving our
residents so the library and I was just telling the wellness campus staff here Sunday the library
membership's growing the pool membership's growing Parks and Recreation program is growing there's
more people visiting buckson Park there's more people visiting the wellness campus so all of
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those things are growing as the entire city is growing yeah and that quality of life is thriving
which we'll talk more about with all these plans and some of the developments we have but Angie
let's talk about your role what do you do for the city because we all get to enjoy it really day
in and day out period right so I've been here 13 years um in August and I started a horticulturist
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and now I'm the horticulturist supervisor which started I think five six years ago what I maintain
is so buck and parks are are B gem um of course so we maintain that then we have the downtown area um
I also monitor all of the street trees um in the rways of the city and then we have the medians and
then we also maintain all the parks Park sign beds and the trees in the Parks so trees as a whole are
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kind of um under me Marty also helps with that as well who's the park supervisor so that's yeah
it's kind of a broad spectrum of things within the whole pars what's your favorite thing about
your job uh designing beds and then seeing them come to life and fruition every year so every
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year I change the beds and the design and the themes and the colors um I generally had kept
the theme downtown always with the pinkun years but this year I changed it to go with Simpson
colors indola colors so those the baskets are red and yellow or purple and yellow and then a mixture
of the three colors so I'm kind of excited about that just for the change of pace because I do like
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change and variety and yeah SP up I guess yeah no and I really enjoyed going to the greenhouse
not that long ago before the baskets made their debut to kind of get an Insider look and what
the community was going to see yeah I kind of left that out we also have the greenhouse that
we maintain um I order all the plants I design all the beds um for buckon par everywhere else
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that we plan so uh that is a whole long process starting in August is when I started designing
the beds so awesome yep well let's just get right into it you guys with first things first all these
Master plans that are talking about are open spaces and our parks and our Trail systems Doug
I'm looking right at you kind of what is the city undertaking right now with that open space master
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plan and kind of what does it all Encompass yeah so we work through a master plan back in 2023 um
about what kind of quality of life what kind of green spaces what kind of um you know relaxation
areas do people in the community want um whether that means soccer fields or Trails or more gardens
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or splash pads or pickle ball courts or any number of things um but at the same time also
evaluate all of our current parks and our current trails and then where do we need which what each
one of those Parks maybe lack what kind of other ities could they get could we add more parking
could we add more restrooms could we add bigger playgrounds all the number amenities of things
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of those um at the same time we had already worked through our Trail master plan in 2019 and updated
that so we have a list of another 12 and a half approximate miles that we would like to add in
the community um we've kind of done a really good job of connecting kind of the north side
of the community but definitely not to the South um we need to work through that and try to get all
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those Trails going to connect so we can make the community more walkable yeah and ridable and so on
um to connect places that people gather whether it's schools Parks downtown movie theater where
you know things that people want to go to when you navigate those discussions or those requests
from community members about more splash pads or all these other amenities how do you navigate
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those because maybe it's sometimes challenging when we're always kind of being being viewed as
competitors with other surrounding communities and it's like oh well this place has this why don't we
have this or this place has that we're Inola we should have that too how do how do you navigate
those discussions and those kind of requests from the community members so as a whole we're we try
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to be data driven so yes one person might say I want some amenity um but we need to make sure
that it can fit that it's safe that we can make it happen we have the resources um the cost of
course is going to be important um we don't have an unlimited amount of funds funding availability
um we also have to evaluate what kind of Staff we have and if we need to add staff or if we're going
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to add 4,000 new flowers on the Square at least we have to have water available to keep them growing
right and we had to add another person just to maintain those every year so that also goes into
a lot of that discussion so yes um we could add more disc golf courses or add more pickle ball
courts or add more softball fields or ADD more soccer fields but that's going to take resources
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Beyond just getting them ready in the first place um but we do want to know what the community wants
so we go through a survey when we did that we had over 500 responses from the community um to tell
us what what they were looking for and again those the four things you know the three or four things
were soccer fields pickle ball courts um Trails those are the things that people are looking for
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um we always would love to say we can do more but also looking to ways where we can do public
private Partnerships too so if there's other organizations as as a city developments come in um
Charlie and his group at Community Development and All City department heads get together and talk
with those developers and hey this is what we're hearing I see you have another acre can we put a
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park in here can we add a pickle ball court could we do other things that they that we know will
help you sell your development but also increase the land value of those things too but also serve
as residents yeah so yesterday the council was pretty exciting they took on and considered and
passed the first reading of a Parkland dedication ordinance that will require developers to put
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in Parkland similar to a street or a sewer or electric lights or all the things that we know
are essential to life but Parks and Recreation is essential to life as well yeah now it's ex
an exciting first step in the right direction for something that probably we all take for granted
for sure within like the current state of our parks and our Trail systems you talked about you
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know that quality of life with the current state and the quality of our Parks how does Indianola
rank what's that Vision or what do we need to do to continue to improve and Elevate our parks and
trail system so we're definitely above average for City our size or cities around waren County or so
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on um we have a pretty high expectation for how we want things to look and how we want the parks
to be safe for people so we're always constantly inspecting playgrounds um at the same time a lot
of our in infrastructure is aging I we're in a shelter here that's probably 60 years old um we
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talk about buckton Park it's over a hundred years old um and so some of the things that were there
were original to the park and they're still around sidewalks and and so on so things like
that are hard to maintain and they take funds and they take people they take a lot of resources um
it takes a lot of volunteers on the on our case too to keep things planted to keep things weeded
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to to do a lot of that stuff too um to keep our programs going at the same time so we do have a
number of programs for youth for kids for adults to come and play bean bags on Mondays and Thursday
evenings you know so they can get away from the stress of life for a little bit of time so we have
a lot to offer um and and thanks again to a lot of our staff and a lot of our volunteers and every
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City Department that keeps our operations running yeah no and I think it's really cool for me you
know now being with the city for a little over eight months now as of the recording of This
podcast episode but as you go around to all our different Parks not every Park is the same it
has its own unique identity from bucker park being that you know that Gem of the community
to Memorial Park here we're recording where it has the amphitheater and the skate park and even
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more playground and some green space and uh it's all across the board and then I mean Pickard park
with a disc gol course and the softball fields of course um it's very cool to just kind of have
different characteristics and different amenities uh in all these different pockets of neighborhoods
um and you talk about that too from the people involvement side of things I mean staff for sure
but uh volunteers and community members especially the first thing that comes to my mind where it was
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very volunteer driven was of course the Wonder on buckon Project which is very much you know
talking about parks and open space and Community connections between the downtown Square to Simpson
College campus and buckon Park just Doug talk a little bit about that Wonder on buckon project
because it is also very close to kind of being the unveiling it's going to be happening here
in the next few months um goodness back in 19 or sorry 2020 um you which feels like 19 yeah
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something right um Indianola Hometown Pride was working on designation to make Indianola to name
Indianola an Iowa great place which was awarded in 2020 then as part of that um the Wonder on buckton
Project which kind of came out of the idea of connecting the square and Simpson College but
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at the same time the last time ragb was in the community that entire Corridor was full of vendors
and music and people and all the bike riders and visitors from all over the world all at the same
time so kind of that's the inspiration that came through that so in 2022 that Indi Hometown Pride
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got an Iowa great places Grant of $73,000 to help install some art um some other culture and themes
and historical concepts of what's what Indianola is all about um the community was involved and
trying to get public input on what the main themes are agriculture Warren County buckton
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Park um balloons music and the founding of inol back in 1849 so um all those three
six things will be part of six main sculptures that will be in they're being they're being built
right now I guess they're not really built because it's an artist putting them together um so those
are being made here in grenell and they should be brought into inol here in by July for at least the
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first unveiling on July 27th another part of that will be some sidewalk inlays along that
two block area from Ashland Avenue to Clinton Street um along along buckton and then there
will be some wind sculptures that are kind of in the shape of hot air balloons again in yellow and
red just like the Inola colors like in purple that we talked about um and and then at the same time
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some QR codes along with some storytelling that will go with those QR codes that some local drama
students in the high school and other and other in Simpson will be able to do this storytelling
not just okay in 1849 this happened on this part of the city or George Washington Carver did this
here it's going to be actually actors acting out the stories at the same time and then that'll be
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all be hosted on the exper Inola website that the Inola chamber is working on so people are
visiting can see that um at the same time adding more green space more Gathering space places for
maybe impromptu food trucks or small little quartet to go and play a little evening along
around the Opera you know those kind of things at the same time man just quite the operation I
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mean so much Community involvement right there and I'll tell listeners right now the best way to stay
engag and to uh remain updated as we talk about you know the Wonder on Buck and unveiling that
Doug mentioned in uh in Late July to everything regarding the uh uh open house or sorry the open
space master plan and all these master plan all these documents can be available and viewed online
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on the city of in's website at www. Inola iowa.gov and as Doug said to the indola Chamber of Commerce
in partnership with the city of Inola has is uh you know spearheading this tourism initiative to
really you know tell the story and the happenings and the experiences um that visitors and community
members alike and partake in and you can check all that content and information online at
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www.experience.com Andie kind of Switching gears here and you talk about with you know our Greenery
and our parks and just everything about Indianola Outdoors the beautification side of it I think
anytime you have a conversation with community members probably more often than not they'd be
like man Indianola is beautiful that's right right correct okay yeah no and I have had people like
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in buckon stop me and tell me like they've gone to I'm not going to name the places but they've
gone to other places where they've paid to enter in Iowa or elsewhere and they said that actually
buckon Park is better maintained and they see more variety of flowers and designs and stuff
like that so um not to toot our own hard but I mean it's a team effort definitely in the park
um we're very proud of our parks um in all of the parks we try to maintain a very high level
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of Maintenance and make it all look as Lush and beautiful and you know get the right trees
and the shade that provides the playgrounds and all that stuff so so what all goes into kind of
your work I mean is it very much a yearr round effort on just the different stages and phases
to get to kind of where we're at right now in the start of June yeah for sure so my job varies like
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every day is different um and we're always kind of I hate to say it by our pants trying to figure
out what to do next so um and generally like in the winter um we're planning for the next season
we're getting the greenhouse ready uh we can try to clean up beds or you know prune trees and stuff
like that and then if it's snowing we are doing snow removal um so it depends on the winter as
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well but yeah in the winter we have to wash all the pots and we sterilize the greenhouse and we
get everything nice and sanitary because I don't want diseases being carried through because if if
you don't sanitize then the plants will eventually potentially die um if they bungus rod and all that
other stuff so um we sanitize the green house in the winter and then starting the end of January
beginning of February we start getting the seeds in and then in the beginning of March we get
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the plugs in so plugs are like miniature plants basically okay um and we pot them up into a larger
container um we do that mostly through March as well as clean up beds April is also bed cleanup
and then we're you know getting everything else ready and continue to work in the greenhouse and
we're also starting to plant trees ail May plant the beds and then yeah contines through there
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um as you can see but and then in the summer is maintaining all the beds you know watering weeding
lots of weeding right now they're popping up like crazy um so yeah it's just a big team effort we
have four staff members that work with us um or I have four staff members that work for me and
then we also have some volunteers that help with like the planting and then the greous they help
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with that stuff too yeah and I know we've all had these conversations with community members in the
past regarding you know um particular areas or um places where you know a development may have
removed trees or um you know primarily with trees or or or bushes um what are kind of the
requirements for when a tree is to be removed what are those next steps to ensure that that
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tree goes back in in the uh appropriate space or in that in that location to still have meet
that threshold are you talking about right of way are you talking about more so of um like I know
probably about about a month ago I think it was at one of our Parks or just one of the um development
sites there were some requirements where um if we had a a tree get removed it's always Our intention
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to replant as long as it's not a uh a hindrance or the area is like infested with disease like
you mentioned earlier yeah if you look around here like you can see a lot of relatively like
especially back there I guess um we had Emerald dashboard come through and we had the process in
where we started removing trees prior to them being completely dead we knew that if we waited
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until after they were dead they would become brittle and they'd be a hazard and dangerous so we
started removing them when they were still alive um we tried to you know phase them as like the
worst ones or the most dangerous ones and then we kind of worked our way through so I think it was
a four five year five six seven year process yeah Doug keeps going up he's like hey I lose track of
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time but um it was a long process and we got them all removed other than like in the wooded wooded
areas that are completely like full of trees um we did not go in through all those woods but we
did go along the bike trail um to make sure that it was safe um trying to remove all the ashes out
of there so that was a long process um I got sidetracked on there but anyways yeah we tried
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Emerald dashboard came through we tried to replace all the trees removed due to that um so a lot of
our Parks have a lot of younger trees um you know five six seven eight as we remove trees we planted
trees so we've just been in this long process of replacing those trees um and we are still like we
have 16 16 trees up the plant in the next week so yeah we're constantly replacing trees as we remove
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trees and St like that wow and even add how long our maintenance is after we plant a tree yeah so
once we plant a tree um if you've seen a tree in town you've probably seen like a steak and
it's got a clasp on it and then has a bag at the bottom so that bag holds 20 gallons of water that
helps our person that's watering the trees know that they're putting the right amount of water on
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the trees so that happens for three years after we plant the tree um and that's a weekly process
throughout the summer so we start doing that depending on what the weather's like so we haven't
had to water trees as much this year but like last year we started watering trees I think in April
wow yeah um but this year we've had a little more lency all rain we had we've started this
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week again so yeah actually last week we started watering all the trees again so with the rain you
know last year having to water for the trees in April and with how much rain we got uh this spring
did that play a factor into the scheduling for being able to plant flowers or anything else
on that side of things yes um definitely so I had tilled with the intention of planting the
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following week and then it was like a total wash out week um which threw everything off a little
bit um but we got them planted we planted in the mud um which is really fun you get
mud everywhere uh but then it also threw it off because then a whole bunch of rain came
after that and I did get the pre-emergent down and the pre-emergent helps keep the weeds down
so we have ion little weeds everywhere right now because it was everything was thrown up this year
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and even if I would have got the pre merch down prior to that one last that heavy heavy rain it
would have all washed away so it it was just a challenging year um it's going to be challenging
a couple weeks here to get it under control but it's just a game of planting I guess I don't know
yeah I mean what advice I mean think about with community members and their own Gardens or their
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lawns I mean just kind of with your involvement and your years of experience what kind of like
General tips and reminders could you give those to uh you know beautify their properties if you
were to shed some shed some knowledge for them right now um a little bit of knowledge I would
say would be less is more sometimes if you plant a whole bunch of gardens but you can't maintain them
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it's going to look a little bit crazy so start out small start with a nice G in the front that you
can maintain and if you want feel like you can do more then do more but I feel like sometimes
people try to go just crazy and then they get overwhelmed and then they get burned out and they
let it all go so I always think start start small and go from there um it's always nice to plant a
tree but if you plant a tree make sure you water it because trees do require water all summer long
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and even into the fall um you should water at least until like the late October time frame um
depending on the weather again but you you for sure don't want them going into the winter dry
if they go in Winter dry they're they're going to die um and I honestly think that's what happens to
some of our larger trees they've been so stressed through the years we've lost today we had to have
five trees removed from buxon because they were dead and I honestly believe do the Dr well so
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not drought this year but drout last year and couple years before that so well I mean speaking
of bucks and just knowing that it's it really is the gem of our community do you have a favorite
Park that you just love either doing work in or just visiting with you know you and your family
or just you know taking taking some time away from from what from your job yeah so I love buckon Park
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but if I was to like put buxon Park aside and say not buxon Park um picker Park would probably be
my next favorite and I honestly just love going out there and walking the dis golf area I don't
play this golf but if you walk just the areas out there and around um especially at night
you get some beautiful scenery um it's a very cool area different landscape than most of the Town um
there's the um Oak Savannah out there so there's a prairie that's been redone we did that I'm really
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bad on years like seven eight years ago probably Doug's nodding so we're good that time I'm good
good down time frame there so seven eight years ago we had the O Savannah redone so if you go
to the south side of Pickard and you go in that uh parking lot on the south side it's a little
gravel parking lot park there it's right down from there it's very beautiful um I'd say now
until all through the fall so it's a nice little area there's different Trails out there so that'
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be my yeah I like that Park yeah and picker Park is going to be a hoop in place here before
too long Doug it's always hopping it's always hopping but I mean with the disc golf pro tour
coming through here here uh in next month yep on July 5th through 7th and actually the the whole
entire week leading up to it they'll be 180 to 200 professionals from all over the world their
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caddies their fans will'll be 2500 Spectators each day um Friday Saturday Sunday um it's amazing way
to Showcase Indianola in in what I would call the best disc golf course in the state obviously
that's the only one that hosts a professional disc golf tournament it's the fourth year now um
but the park also has six softball fields that are always busy from teams practicing
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every night to adult softball to Youth Softball to in the fall we'll have flag football people
come practice soccer in there as Angie mentioned just the walking trails um you can go out there
now and the grass is starting to get thigh high probably probably um and towards the end of June
it's going to be almost up to your head and so you can really get into a whole another world
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out there um you can go from a rolling Prairie like Angie said at the Oak Savannah to a stream
water where you can see Fish running by there it's it's completely eight all the different
things you can think of Iowa is all in that par wow right there um and Wildlife you can see deer
you can see Gophers you can see all kinds of you know nuisance animals but um but we're also I
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think that's another thing that that we're looking that we really are proud of here is trying to be
good stewards of nature in all of our Parks as you mentioned before um buckton Park is a plus
maintenance you know we're constantly mowing we're constantly weeding we're constantly trimming we're
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always want that to look like a perfect garden the entire all the acres are there where we go
to denel skki park which all we do is mow a little Half Mile Trail and the rest of it is
just let to grow as it's supposed to so we have all different levels of parks you can
go see and picker has exactly that it has the A+ the turf like you got on the softball field that
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we're always fertilizing we're always seeding it we're always doing everything to keep it
we're touching it every single day where there's section of picker that I'm sure people have not
seen for you know three months right so we have all those levels of things um nature is important
to us so when we're talking about birds we're talking about bees and butterflies and and um
this initiative that I know Angie started a few years ago of if you see milke weeds in places that
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probably you wouldn't normally think of but that is that absolute habitat for monarch butterflies
and they're relying on that and they're becoming endangered species that we need to try to get back
so you'll see those if if I would say anything plant a milke weed in your yard right definitely
yeah and we burn the prair outa Pickard so yeah we've been trying to naturalize Pickard that
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used to be mo or used to be ha and now we are been mowing it we're trying to get it back to you know
the more native state of it so um slowly through the process will get it going again so even with
when you talk about that process I mean how many years is it until like it's perfected or where
it's like this is the absolute best that we can do we just have to let it be type deal that's a whole
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process and honestly I don't know we to do the oak Savannah the part we did do the two sections
we did do we they actually had to spray it and kill it off some of the grasses were too invasive
to let the um the natives come back so uh Warren County Conservation actually helped with us that
project um and they sprayed it for us and they came back I think it was twice three times um
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and sprayed it and then they help actually came back and helped eat it off so that's how that got
nice and that's why that section is the nicest is because that they came and help us do that so
and the other sections have some of Bas of pairs coming up and other things like that
so we're trying to knock that down and get that maintained and then once we have the funding and
the once it's a priority um honestly when we'll get to the point of being able to possibly spr
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any conservation to agree do it again um it's kind of up in the air right now so if they're listening
to this hey agree and Prairie takes multi- years to get established so the a whole win or a whole
summer of it looking dead like it we had to sign out there basically explaining what was going on
because it looked dead the first thing all those annual all those perennials do is go in the ground
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and put their Roots way down into the ground um and then years after then they start coming up to
the top and then you you start seeing flowers and different things going on so four years ago when
this golf tournament was here in August it was what I call blacke Seasons I know they aren't but
the whole field there was probably three acres of black and yellow flowers and they were all
(30:13):
about six feet tall it was unbelievably amazing and then you can come three weeks later and it's
completely different color yeah yep yeah it's a good three four year process once you get it
seated to make it look and come to life and to really show its true colors I guess so to speak
see being the photo guy that I am I mean I'd be in heaven uh being able to capture and document yeah
(30:34):
I would say Pickard is awesome like at sunset time if you get there like late fall I got some pretty
cool pictures I think myself start sharing those yeah I have one in our office hanging of you know
the Prairie out there it was a yellow salido with the sunset and the oak tree and it it's co picture
I mean Indianola really is a picturesque Community I mean all across the board and I take a lot of
(30:57):
pride uh you know working and part-time living uh in town and I know both of you and the bulk of our
community as well I mean we are very proud to be here in Indianola and you two and your team and
the volunteers we have uh helping out with these efforts play a big part to make it what it is
today no question about it kind of switching gear since we are nearby the Veterans Memorial Aquatic
(31:22):
Center we can hear the kiddos having a good time uh the music's blaring uh at a good volume
it's not being a nuisance to anybody else um the pools open back up open back up on June 1st so
just as past Saturday as of their cording of this podcast just how exciting is it to have the pool
open for the summer season and talk about how maybe relieves knock gunwood while I say this
(31:46):
to have things um uh flowing and at good levels and and so far so good right Doug yeah pool is
um is alra rewarding because now we're seeing four or 500 people in there playing and having a great
time um but when we started in when we start going outside in April and start getting things
(32:06):
ready um it is an entire city operation to get it up and running um to Angie and her staff that are
obviously working on the beautification there to Afton and all of her staff and the lifeguards and
everybody cleaning everything because I mean it sits untouched for four months in the winter time
um it takes power washing every inch of that thing um getting all the pipes ready to go um crossing
(32:32):
our fingers that nothing happens in the winter time freezing and thawing and so on as much as
we prepare it and put anif freeze in and all those kind of things Mother Nature ultimately wins when
it comes to that um but our wastewater treatment plant guys were here for five or six days off and
on trying to get pumps on that were seized up um getting getting them running they're our experts
(32:54):
when you're talking about the sewer guys they have hundreds of these pumps all over the city
that they maintain all the time so they come in and help us Street Department comes and works on
this on the parking lot um obviously City Hall we hiring all the staff HR everything going on
there's 45 staff seasonal staff that work there every year um and then so Aon was there when we
(33:15):
turn the water on and he's all excited we're going to be see this and like I yeah I thought
it was going to just splurt out I've never seen it before and he's like oh there's 30 31 pumps
we have five six pumps in the pool what was the 30 I thought there were like 31 locations you
were like this is one oh there's 31 different valves and they all do different things so we
have all the features that you know each one to do different things or the slides each one of the
(33:37):
slides have their own Valves and so on so all those things all have to work and then then we
went to turn it on and one of those 11 that runs the circulation system obviously we couldn't close
so we had to wait call in event contractor to come in and fix all that um so it's always little bit
of a as you say we're in a park it's funny to say but all the little squirrels that jump ahead and
and keep us off our plan we were hoping you know to fill May 1st and hopefully turn the
(34:02):
pumps on May 3rd and I think it was like May 8th which still isn't seem like a long time but every
time you do something and you get delayed just like it rains when you want to plant that day
right everything always happens and we just have to fly again fly by our seat of her pants and get
it done yeah um we got everything open and we had a week or so for the water to get warmed up and
Sun helped us and then we have a heater there so um we got got everything open and then of course
(34:26):
we get 400 people that everybody jumps in with a half a gallon of maybe not a half a gallon but
feels like a half a gallon of sunscreen and all that sunscreen goes into the water and instantly
clouds it up so um as as you as we visit any pool in the world anywhere please please please put
your sunscreen on earlier than later don't do it at the last minute and please take a shower
(34:50):
so you can get everything off of you that may be if you were just mowing the yard or whatever it
might have been obviously the grass clippings go in there our water has a six hour turnover so it
really literally takes six hours for all the water to get filtered through the system um once those
greases and oils and shampoos and makeups and everything that go in the water has to go through
the gutter and through our filters to clean it off so the next morning is brighten yeah but really I
(35:15):
mean it just takes a few hours like on Saturday like you said once the Pool opened up at 1 pm it
put I think it took maybe two three four hours until it's like hey we got to close restout the
day because if we can't if we can't see the bottom of the pool then we're going to close for obvious
reasons we can't have anybody unfortunately being at the bottom that we could we wouldn't be able
to see so it's ultimately for everybody's safety is why we Clos the pool down because of cloudy
(35:40):
water yeah and I know Aton Bradley who kind of leads all the efforts with at the pool she
couldn't join us here today of course because she's you know working leading the staff there
but just how instrumental is Aton to indola in the pool specifically of course but just from uh her
experience and her involvement and her training with that staff as well yeah so we have a really
(36:02):
good Core group that comes back year after year majority of our staff are all high school students
or even early college aged um once in a while we have an adult or two that might be a lifeguard or
something but um she develops that sense of family of this is the responsibility this is what it's
going to take this is what we expect out of you it's not just sitting in a lifeguard and being
(36:25):
Wendy puffer corn and you know stand by me right that just looks pretty this is you're going to
work hard and we expect you to practice we expect you to be able to make rescues you expect you to
be proactive and work on you know the kids that I'm not sure that little four-year-old should be
in this part of the pool let's make sure he's not right so we're always looking out for that
because we ultimately want everybody to be safe um at the same time a lot of the lifeguards are all
(36:49):
swim lesson instructors and they've done through water safety instruction classes so they can teach
kids to be proactive when they're around water so they're not Swimming by themselves they go
to the lake at least they're hopefully going to be safer if they go to a river for goodness sakes
we hopefully you don't swim in a river but if you do that hopefully you have the life skills
that can get you back out if you get in trouble or you're with somebody to know you have to swim with
(37:11):
somebody else so they can help you get out if if need be so um it's not it's it's lifethreatening
skill but it can be life-saving too right and so we got to treat it that way we want everybody to
be safe yeah um and so they work hard we put a lot of a lot of expectations on them and I think
they take pride in the fact that the facility is as clean and as and even though it's 26 years old
(37:37):
um it's we still keep trying to invest in it repair things take care of things as best as
we can um it has been People's Choice Award for the Metro the great the voted the number one pool
last two years in 202 and 23 so we're proud of that um and again it's it's just it's exciting
it's it's the start of summer right we have three months here let's enjoy it and let's hope it's 83
(38:01):
degrees and sunny every single day and we get a tenth of an inch of rain at night so Angie doesn't
have to water so much I think 75 anyway and people take care of their sunscreen in those body oils
right yeah but kind of with those next steps with the pool being 26 years old like you said and the
amenities aspect we talked about earlier in the episode here what are some of the next steps on
(38:24):
the horizon for the pool as you think about kind of the next stage the next life it could take for
the community yeah so we've worked with waterers Edge Aquatics um company that has looked done a
doing an evaluation of the mechanics of the of the pool right now um to kind of get an idea
of the lifespan of what kind of we can think to expect is it do we still have 10 years out
(38:45):
do we still have 20 years is it something that we got to go faster you know on replace um we'
like to get some more again eventually some more Community input as to what people would like when
it comes to the quatics world do we need bigger do we need different features do we need a Flow
Rider do we need a wave ride what what kind of things would people be there's so much out
there right there's so many opportunities um and we still have to have lap swimming and we still
(39:07):
need to have just that General Pool Recreation that goes on and the area for again for for swim
lessons and so people can can learn to be safer around water so we're working through that this
we've done some pre before this pool is full and now we'll do some more evaluation now that it's
running um I'd love to sit here and tell you that it runs like a smooth operation you know
every everything runs exactly like it's supposed to but it doesn't right it's all like it's night
(39:31):
it's like a 1994 Ford Pinto right it's it's got some issues that that once in a while that takes
a little bit extra you know not not not like it's being held together by MacGyver's duct tape but
sometimes feels that way we we have Gremlins in the pool and once in a while we we know how to at
least try to take care of them be nice to them and even during that time you know with uh you
(39:55):
know the warmer months right now there's still lots to do um still indoors and at you know our
other facilities as you think about culture and recreation from the IND Activity Center where
the Parks and Recreation Department is housed to obviously the public library and the indol
wellness campus just there's always something happening every single day right right so again
(40:17):
check keep check out indanol iowa.gov um see those updates in the Park and Recreation Department in
the wellness campus and Library um activity center for the senior center has Dunes in tre
once a month I have a concert again a concert once a month and we do the lecture series whe whether
it's Abraham Lincoln or we just did um laori Engles Wilder you know in the things the history
(40:38):
of whether it's history of baseball in Iowa or different things that we we'll talk about um to
daily activities whether um people that come and go knitting or play pool in the back the guys play
there or line dancing or yoga or lots of different AC yoga with goats too we did yoga with goats at
buckton Park on Saturday it looked like it was a good time Park was really full yeah it did look
(40:59):
back I saw those photos I'm like whoow yeah so it's a good ett Close Quarters there yeah so um
we have always have opportunities and things for every age um whether you know in the earli spring
we had some some IM magic Camp whether to that do that or um if you go to the activity center and
you want to be involved with Master Gardeners and ISU extension from waren County waren County they
(41:22):
working on a community garden there last year they had over 800 pounds of fruits and vegetables that
they harvested it'll be more this year because they've expanded some of that space so whether you
like to help with those kind of things you can see how that there's another good place to learn from
some experts right on how to grow your vegetable gardens or things like that so um there's so many
opportunities to play in t-ball t-ball leagues are starting up this week um used softball is
(41:46):
winding down adult softball's going we'll have flag football in the fall again like I talked
about so there's always plenty of opportunities um or you just want to go to Pickard and walk
around the Trails um you want to go to denski and wait around and I guarantee you'll see a deer
couple deer walk by on Saturday morning the pool morning we had the very youngest visitor I think
(42:08):
we've ever had to the pool and I have a picture he looked like he like a day old Fawn and his
mom walked across the parking lot wow so you never know what you're going to see every day wow I mean
all I'm hearing right now is just quality of life I mean it's checking all the boxes A+ across the
board and like I said because of both of you your staff me members and the volunteers and community
(42:28):
members that make this possible so I mean the the sky is a limit I mean seriously I guess lastly
is there anything else that either of you would like to share whether it be about you know next
steps uh within your roles and the things that the community could look forward to or just anything
that you think is important that we need to make sure that our listeners here right here right
(42:50):
now well I would like to say that to me as being a recreation in my in my blood doing this for gosh
well obviously I started playing sports or games or going to Parks or things or running around a
um clown swing and invaded when I was a kid at the fairground so I mean those are the memories that
(43:14):
you're going to make um it's so so important for us to connect to Our Generations our neighbors our
grandkids our grand you know our grandparents our great-grandparents our aunts our uncles and and
when you have a chance for anybody to come visit take them to BU Park um take them to the pool take
them to places to give them what experience in Yola is but ultimately come to the parks to and
(43:37):
connect with your neighbors and your friends and again it's important for us to get away from the
stress of life every single day so that's why we have what we have um 2020 a lot of people don't
like 2020 we know we're not going to mention that evil word but that's when so many people
understood the investment that we made made from 1905 when the buckton family donated buckton park
(44:02):
to where we are now to having trails to having parks to having places where people could gather
in a pandemic where they could still at least have a sense of normaly right yeah and I think
even too and when you and I have talked about this in the past Doug is um you know the long
hours and the long days um they're grueling but when you are able to see the smile of a kiddo or
(44:25):
be able to kind of help bring a memory to a family makes it all worth it right sure exactly yeah and
i' welcome anybody to come to BU Park and just check it out um and visit all of our Parks you
know like Doug mentioned theel like that's a little hidden park that most people don't even
know where it's at likei I've never heard of that check it out there's a little Trail there
(44:46):
you know it's a half a mile loop I think yeah and in the springtime I guarantee you'll find
moral mushrooms in the timber right it's just a little hidden park um so yeah allive Parks
have just like you said mentioned ear are these different unique aspects to them um to visit and
check out and you know buxon has the Children's Garden now and there's grandparents that bring
their kids there and families that gathered there and you know now there's people since Co actually
(45:09):
since 2020 certain people now come to buxon and just have their little picnic like coffee Club
um on certain mornings um and then yoga there's G to be a yoga every Tuesday I think now this
summer something new um so yeah there's just different opportunities out there and just you
know check it out see where you can find to try out and experience exactly yeah you can find all
(45:31):
this information online whether it be the city of Inola website at www. indola iowa.gov also check
out experience IND yola.com again that's that tourism initiative between the indola Chamber
of Commerce and the City of indola and stay connected with us on social media whether it be
the Parks and Recreation and all their respective channels the city of indola itself on all of our
channels and there's lots of information out there on the digital world and of course the quarterly
(45:56):
magazine so uh those will be delivered to all 50125 zip codes here before too long at the end
of the month so lots of great information from Parks and wreck the city of course and just the
whole Spectrum but uh no Doug Angie I just want to thank you guys both again for joining me on this
episode of Indie unplugged uh this is probably going to be my favorite episode because again
(46:17):
we are outdoors and I think I'm going to have to keep up in the bar uh as we start to incorporate
video and go to all these other on-site locations so I hope you both enjoy enjoyed it as much as I
did um you don't have to answer that it's okay but no yeah just stay engaged with us Community
um check out all the episodes we have thus far U make sure you subscribe to all of our episodes
(46:40):
whether it be apple podcast Spotify iHeart Radio you name it all this information again lives
on www. Inola iowa.gov and who knows maybe next time you'll be a future guest of Indie unplugged
[Music]
(00:11):
Welcome to Indy Unplugged, the podcast that's your front row seat to the real talk of Indianola.
I'm Aaron Young, your friendly neighborhood host, and we're diving deep into unfiltered
stories, candid chats and the nitty-gritty of our vibrant city. Think of this as a crash
course in all things Indianola. No fancy jargon, just real conversations. So get comfy, hit that
(00:35):
play button, and let's explore the heart and soul of our community together on Indy Unplugged.
Alright welcome back to another episode of Indy Unplugged, the City of Indianola podcast, and we are
actually on location it's our first ever albeit this is only our fourth or fifth podcast episode
but we are actually out in the elements we are at Memorial Park and it's very fitting because
(01:00):
we are with two awesome individuals from the City of Indianola's Parks and Recreation Department,
Doug Bylund and Angie Buchanan. How are you guys doing it's so great to kind of be out and I'm very jealous
How are you guys doing? It's so great to kind of be out and I'm very jealous
of really both of you and your entire department because you get to be outdoors working in probably
probably the best and/or worst location depending on the elements but I'm I always want to get out
(01:22):
and enjoy myself. Let's make him come work on the ball field in the middle of a thunderstorm hey I
did tell Brandon when I was back in my one of my previous lives I would get on the The Mower and
I would do uh cut the grass for baseball and softball fields and do some chalking and I I
love that bit so or shov snow in the winter I mean let's not go that far or even plant or even plant
(01:42):
the medians in the mud that's fun too y I would love to get my hands dirty rather than always
documenting and um celebrating the stories of our staff and the work that comes into it to serve
our community but whenever you need an extra body like just let me know I may or may not show up use
yeah well let's just get to know you both a little bit further I mean talking about your
(02:06):
roles with the city and kind of your history um in the department Doug let's just start with you
how long have you worked for the city and what do you what do you do for the city so I started in
November of 1998 so almost 26 years as a youth Sports Coordinator at the time um it was even
part-time then so it was pretty fun in charge of softball basketball soccer for Youth Of course at
(02:31):
the time then it transition into all sports and then Recreation superintendent and then now well
before that Parks and Recreation director and now recently chief of culture and recreation so
trying to work through the library and you know the wellness campus and Parks and Recreation
Department kind of all grouped together as quality of life initiatives that the city has what's that
(02:54):
transformation been like with your role now being that chief of culture and recreation has it been
kind of easy to help kind of bring on board with the library and the wellness campus because of
that you know quality of life from the cultural and recreational services or have there been kind
of some challenges because you know we are just a few months into that that whole change what's
what's that been like now yeah so overall it's been really good the all of our departments that
(03:18):
are dealing with quality of life and the city as a whole has the same Mission as serving our
residents so the library and I was just telling the wellness campus staff here Sunday the library
membership's growing the pool membership's growing Parks and Recreation program is growing there's
more people visiting buckson Park there's more people visiting the wellness campus so all of
(03:39):
those things are growing as the entire city is growing yeah and that quality of life is thriving
which we'll talk more about with all these plans and some of the developments we have but Angie
let's talk about your role what do you do for the city because we all get to enjoy it really day
in and day out period right so I've been here 13 years um in August and I started a horticulturist
(04:00):
and now I'm the horticulturist supervisor which started I think five six years ago what I maintain
is so buck and parks are are B gem um of course so we maintain that then we have the downtown area um
I also monitor all of the street trees um in the rways of the city and then we have the medians and
then we also maintain all the parks Park sign beds and the trees in the Parks so trees as a whole are
(04:27):
kind of um under me Marty also helps with that as well who's the park supervisor so that's yeah
it's kind of a broad spectrum of things within the whole pars what's your favorite thing about
your job uh designing beds and then seeing them come to life and fruition every year so every
(04:48):
year I change the beds and the design and the themes and the colors um I generally had kept
the theme downtown always with the pinkun years but this year I changed it to go with Simpson
colors indola colors so those the baskets are red and yellow or purple and yellow and then a mixture
of the three colors so I'm kind of excited about that just for the change of pace because I do like
(05:08):
change and variety and yeah SP up I guess yeah no and I really enjoyed going to the greenhouse
not that long ago before the baskets made their debut to kind of get an Insider look and what
the community was going to see yeah I kind of left that out we also have the greenhouse that
we maintain um I order all the plants I design all the beds um for buckon par everywhere else
(05:30):
that we plan so uh that is a whole long process starting in August is when I started designing
the beds so awesome yep well let's just get right into it you guys with first things first all these
Master plans that are talking about are open spaces and our parks and our Trail systems Doug
I'm looking right at you kind of what is the city undertaking right now with that open space master
(05:53):
plan and kind of what does it all Encompass yeah so we work through a master plan back in 2023 um
about what kind of quality of life what kind of green spaces what kind of um you know relaxation
areas do people in the community want um whether that means soccer fields or Trails or more gardens
(06:15):
or splash pads or pickle ball courts or any number of things um but at the same time also
evaluate all of our current parks and our current trails and then where do we need which what each
one of those Parks maybe lack what kind of other ities could they get could we add more parking
could we add more restrooms could we add bigger playgrounds all the number amenities of things
(06:36):
of those um at the same time we had already worked through our Trail master plan in 2019 and updated
that so we have a list of another 12 and a half approximate miles that we would like to add in
the community um we've kind of done a really good job of connecting kind of the north side
of the community but definitely not to the South um we need to work through that and try to get all
(07:00):
those Trails going to connect so we can make the community more walkable yeah and ridable and so on
um to connect places that people gather whether it's schools Parks downtown movie theater where
you know things that people want to go to when you navigate those discussions or those requests
from community members about more splash pads or all these other amenities how do you navigate
(07:24):
those because maybe it's sometimes challenging when we're always kind of being being viewed as
competitors with other surrounding communities and it's like oh well this place has this why don't we
have this or this place has that we're Inola we should have that too how do how do you navigate
those discussions and those kind of requests from the community members so as a whole we're we try
(07:45):
to be data driven so yes one person might say I want some amenity um but we need to make sure
that it can fit that it's safe that we can make it happen we have the resources um the cost of
course is going to be important um we don't have an unlimited amount of funds funding availability
um we also have to evaluate what kind of Staff we have and if we need to add staff or if we're going
(08:10):
to add 4,000 new flowers on the Square at least we have to have water available to keep them growing
right and we had to add another person just to maintain those every year so that also goes into
a lot of that discussion so yes um we could add more disc golf courses or add more pickle ball
courts or add more softball fields or ADD more soccer fields but that's going to take resources
(08:31):
Beyond just getting them ready in the first place um but we do want to know what the community wants
so we go through a survey when we did that we had over 500 responses from the community um to tell
us what what they were looking for and again those the four things you know the three or four things
were soccer fields pickle ball courts um Trails those are the things that people are looking for
(08:53):
um we always would love to say we can do more but also looking to ways where we can do public
private Partnerships too so if there's other organizations as as a city developments come in um
Charlie and his group at Community Development and All City department heads get together and talk
with those developers and hey this is what we're hearing I see you have another acre can we put a
(09:14):
park in here can we add a pickle ball court could we do other things that they that we know will
help you sell your development but also increase the land value of those things too but also serve
as residents yeah so yesterday the council was pretty exciting they took on and considered and
passed the first reading of a Parkland dedication ordinance that will require developers to put
(09:38):
in Parkland similar to a street or a sewer or electric lights or all the things that we know
are essential to life but Parks and Recreation is essential to life as well yeah now it's ex
an exciting first step in the right direction for something that probably we all take for granted
for sure within like the current state of our parks and our Trail systems you talked about you
(10:00):
know that quality of life with the current state and the quality of our Parks how does Indianola
rank what's that Vision or what do we need to do to continue to improve and Elevate our parks and
trail system so we're definitely above average for City our size or cities around waren County or so
(10:20):
on um we have a pretty high expectation for how we want things to look and how we want the parks
to be safe for people so we're always constantly inspecting playgrounds um at the same time a lot
of our in infrastructure is aging I we're in a shelter here that's probably 60 years old um we
(10:41):
talk about buckton Park it's over a hundred years old um and so some of the things that were there
were original to the park and they're still around sidewalks and and so on so things like
that are hard to maintain and they take funds and they take people they take a lot of resources um
it takes a lot of volunteers on the on our case too to keep things planted to keep things weeded
(11:04):
to to do a lot of that stuff too um to keep our programs going at the same time so we do have a
number of programs for youth for kids for adults to come and play bean bags on Mondays and Thursday
evenings you know so they can get away from the stress of life for a little bit of time so we have
a lot to offer um and and thanks again to a lot of our staff and a lot of our volunteers and every
(11:29):
City Department that keeps our operations running yeah no and I think it's really cool for me you
know now being with the city for a little over eight months now as of the recording of This
podcast episode but as you go around to all our different Parks not every Park is the same it
has its own unique identity from bucker park being that you know that Gem of the community
to Memorial Park here we're recording where it has the amphitheater and the skate park and even
(11:53):
more playground and some green space and uh it's all across the board and then I mean Pickard park
with a disc gol course and the softball fields of course um it's very cool to just kind of have
different characteristics and different amenities uh in all these different pockets of neighborhoods
um and you talk about that too from the people involvement side of things I mean staff for sure
but uh volunteers and community members especially the first thing that comes to my mind where it was
(12:18):
very volunteer driven was of course the Wonder on buckon Project which is very much you know
talking about parks and open space and Community connections between the downtown Square to Simpson
College campus and buckon Park just Doug talk a little bit about that Wonder on buckon project
because it is also very close to kind of being the unveiling it's going to be happening here
in the next few months um goodness back in 19 or sorry 2020 um you which feels like 19 yeah
(12:46):
something right um Indianola Hometown Pride was working on designation to make Indianola to name
Indianola an Iowa great place which was awarded in 2020 then as part of that um the Wonder on buckton
Project which kind of came out of the idea of connecting the square and Simpson College but
(13:07):
at the same time the last time ragb was in the community that entire Corridor was full of vendors
and music and people and all the bike riders and visitors from all over the world all at the same
time so kind of that's the inspiration that came through that so in 2022 that Indi Hometown Pride
(13:30):
got an Iowa great places Grant of $73,000 to help install some art um some other culture and themes
and historical concepts of what's what Indianola is all about um the community was involved and
trying to get public input on what the main themes are agriculture Warren County buckton
(13:50):
Park um balloons music and the founding of inol back in 1849 so um all those three
six things will be part of six main sculptures that will be in they're being they're being built
right now I guess they're not really built because it's an artist putting them together um so those
are being made here in grenell and they should be brought into inol here in by July for at least the
(14:15):
first unveiling on July 27th another part of that will be some sidewalk inlays along that
two block area from Ashland Avenue to Clinton Street um along along buckton and then there
will be some wind sculptures that are kind of in the shape of hot air balloons again in yellow and
red just like the Inola colors like in purple that we talked about um and and then at the same time
(14:41):
some QR codes along with some storytelling that will go with those QR codes that some local drama
students in the high school and other and other in Simpson will be able to do this storytelling
not just okay in 1849 this happened on this part of the city or George Washington Carver did this
here it's going to be actually actors acting out the stories at the same time and then that'll be
(15:05):
all be hosted on the exper Inola website that the Inola chamber is working on so people are
visiting can see that um at the same time adding more green space more Gathering space places for
maybe impromptu food trucks or small little quartet to go and play a little evening along
around the Opera you know those kind of things at the same time man just quite the operation I
(15:27):
mean so much Community involvement right there and I'll tell listeners right now the best way to stay
engag and to uh remain updated as we talk about you know the Wonder on Buck and unveiling that
Doug mentioned in uh in Late July to everything regarding the uh uh open house or sorry the open
space master plan and all these master plan all these documents can be available and viewed online
(15:49):
on the city of in's website at www. Inola iowa.gov and as Doug said to the indola Chamber of Commerce
in partnership with the city of Inola has is uh you know spearheading this tourism initiative to
really you know tell the story and the happenings and the experiences um that visitors and community
members alike and partake in and you can check all that content and information online at
(16:12):
www.experience.com Andie kind of Switching gears here and you talk about with you know our Greenery
and our parks and just everything about Indianola Outdoors the beautification side of it I think
anytime you have a conversation with community members probably more often than not they'd be
like man Indianola is beautiful that's right right correct okay yeah no and I have had people like
(16:37):
in buckon stop me and tell me like they've gone to I'm not going to name the places but they've
gone to other places where they've paid to enter in Iowa or elsewhere and they said that actually
buckon Park is better maintained and they see more variety of flowers and designs and stuff
like that so um not to toot our own hard but I mean it's a team effort definitely in the park
um we're very proud of our parks um in all of the parks we try to maintain a very high level
(17:02):
of Maintenance and make it all look as Lush and beautiful and you know get the right trees
and the shade that provides the playgrounds and all that stuff so so what all goes into kind of
your work I mean is it very much a yearr round effort on just the different stages and phases
to get to kind of where we're at right now in the start of June yeah for sure so my job varies like
(17:25):
every day is different um and we're always kind of I hate to say it by our pants trying to figure
out what to do next so um and generally like in the winter um we're planning for the next season
we're getting the greenhouse ready uh we can try to clean up beds or you know prune trees and stuff
like that and then if it's snowing we are doing snow removal um so it depends on the winter as
(17:46):
well but yeah in the winter we have to wash all the pots and we sterilize the greenhouse and we
get everything nice and sanitary because I don't want diseases being carried through because if if
you don't sanitize then the plants will eventually potentially die um if they bungus rod and all that
other stuff so um we sanitize the green house in the winter and then starting the end of January
beginning of February we start getting the seeds in and then in the beginning of March we get
(18:09):
the plugs in so plugs are like miniature plants basically okay um and we pot them up into a larger
container um we do that mostly through March as well as clean up beds April is also bed cleanup
and then we're you know getting everything else ready and continue to work in the greenhouse and
we're also starting to plant trees ail May plant the beds and then yeah contines through there
(18:32):
um as you can see but and then in the summer is maintaining all the beds you know watering weeding
lots of weeding right now they're popping up like crazy um so yeah it's just a big team effort we
have four staff members that work with us um or I have four staff members that work for me and
then we also have some volunteers that help with like the planting and then the greous they help
(18:54):
with that stuff too yeah and I know we've all had these conversations with community members in the
past regarding you know um particular areas or um places where you know a development may have
removed trees or um you know primarily with trees or or or bushes um what are kind of the
requirements for when a tree is to be removed what are those next steps to ensure that that
(19:17):
tree goes back in in the uh appropriate space or in that in that location to still have meet
that threshold are you talking about right of way are you talking about more so of um like I know
probably about about a month ago I think it was at one of our Parks or just one of the um development
sites there were some requirements where um if we had a a tree get removed it's always Our intention
(19:42):
to replant as long as it's not a uh a hindrance or the area is like infested with disease like
you mentioned earlier yeah if you look around here like you can see a lot of relatively like
especially back there I guess um we had Emerald dashboard come through and we had the process in
where we started removing trees prior to them being completely dead we knew that if we waited
(20:03):
until after they were dead they would become brittle and they'd be a hazard and dangerous so we
started removing them when they were still alive um we tried to you know phase them as like the
worst ones or the most dangerous ones and then we kind of worked our way through so I think it was
a four five year five six seven year process yeah Doug keeps going up he's like hey I lose track of
(20:24):
time but um it was a long process and we got them all removed other than like in the wooded wooded
areas that are completely like full of trees um we did not go in through all those woods but we
did go along the bike trail um to make sure that it was safe um trying to remove all the ashes out
of there so that was a long process um I got sidetracked on there but anyways yeah we tried
(20:45):
Emerald dashboard came through we tried to replace all the trees removed due to that um so a lot of
our Parks have a lot of younger trees um you know five six seven eight as we remove trees we planted
trees so we've just been in this long process of replacing those trees um and we are still like we
have 16 16 trees up the plant in the next week so yeah we're constantly replacing trees as we remove
(21:06):
trees and St like that wow and even add how long our maintenance is after we plant a tree yeah so
once we plant a tree um if you've seen a tree in town you've probably seen like a steak and
it's got a clasp on it and then has a bag at the bottom so that bag holds 20 gallons of water that
helps our person that's watering the trees know that they're putting the right amount of water on
(21:27):
the trees so that happens for three years after we plant the tree um and that's a weekly process
throughout the summer so we start doing that depending on what the weather's like so we haven't
had to water trees as much this year but like last year we started watering trees I think in April
wow yeah um but this year we've had a little more lency all rain we had we've started this
(21:47):
week again so yeah actually last week we started watering all the trees again so with the rain you
know last year having to water for the trees in April and with how much rain we got uh this spring
did that play a factor into the scheduling for being able to plant flowers or anything else
on that side of things yes um definitely so I had tilled with the intention of planting the
(22:09):
following week and then it was like a total wash out week um which threw everything off a little
bit um but we got them planted we planted in the mud um which is really fun you get
mud everywhere uh but then it also threw it off because then a whole bunch of rain came
after that and I did get the pre-emergent down and the pre-emergent helps keep the weeds down
so we have ion little weeds everywhere right now because it was everything was thrown up this year
(22:33):
and even if I would have got the pre merch down prior to that one last that heavy heavy rain it
would have all washed away so it it was just a challenging year um it's going to be challenging
a couple weeks here to get it under control but it's just a game of planting I guess I don't know
yeah I mean what advice I mean think about with community members and their own Gardens or their
(22:54):
lawns I mean just kind of with your involvement and your years of experience what kind of like
General tips and reminders could you give those to uh you know beautify their properties if you
were to shed some shed some knowledge for them right now um a little bit of knowledge I would
say would be less is more sometimes if you plant a whole bunch of gardens but you can't maintain them
(23:14):
it's going to look a little bit crazy so start out small start with a nice G in the front that you
can maintain and if you want feel like you can do more then do more but I feel like sometimes
people try to go just crazy and then they get overwhelmed and then they get burned out and they
let it all go so I always think start start small and go from there um it's always nice to plant a
tree but if you plant a tree make sure you water it because trees do require water all summer long
(23:39):
and even into the fall um you should water at least until like the late October time frame um
depending on the weather again but you you for sure don't want them going into the winter dry
if they go in Winter dry they're they're going to die um and I honestly think that's what happens to
some of our larger trees they've been so stressed through the years we've lost today we had to have
five trees removed from buxon because they were dead and I honestly believe do the Dr well so
(24:05):
not drought this year but drout last year and couple years before that so well I mean speaking
of bucks and just knowing that it's it really is the gem of our community do you have a favorite
Park that you just love either doing work in or just visiting with you know you and your family
or just you know taking taking some time away from from what from your job yeah so I love buckon Park
(24:27):
but if I was to like put buxon Park aside and say not buxon Park um picker Park would probably be
my next favorite and I honestly just love going out there and walking the dis golf area I don't
play this golf but if you walk just the areas out there and around um especially at night
you get some beautiful scenery um it's a very cool area different landscape than most of the Town um
there's the um Oak Savannah out there so there's a prairie that's been redone we did that I'm really
(24:53):
bad on years like seven eight years ago probably Doug's nodding so we're good that time I'm good
good down time frame there so seven eight years ago we had the O Savannah redone so if you go
to the south side of Pickard and you go in that uh parking lot on the south side it's a little
gravel parking lot park there it's right down from there it's very beautiful um I'd say now
until all through the fall so it's a nice little area there's different Trails out there so that'
(25:17):
be my yeah I like that Park yeah and picker Park is going to be a hoop in place here before
too long Doug it's always hopping it's always hopping but I mean with the disc golf pro tour
coming through here here uh in next month yep on July 5th through 7th and actually the the whole
entire week leading up to it they'll be 180 to 200 professionals from all over the world their
(25:39):
caddies their fans will'll be 2500 Spectators each day um Friday Saturday Sunday um it's amazing way
to Showcase Indianola in in what I would call the best disc golf course in the state obviously
that's the only one that hosts a professional disc golf tournament it's the fourth year now um
but the park also has six softball fields that are always busy from teams practicing
(26:03):
every night to adult softball to Youth Softball to in the fall we'll have flag football people
come practice soccer in there as Angie mentioned just the walking trails um you can go out there
now and the grass is starting to get thigh high probably probably um and towards the end of June
it's going to be almost up to your head and so you can really get into a whole another world
(26:26):
out there um you can go from a rolling Prairie like Angie said at the Oak Savannah to a stream
water where you can see Fish running by there it's it's completely eight all the different
things you can think of Iowa is all in that par wow right there um and Wildlife you can see deer
you can see Gophers you can see all kinds of you know nuisance animals but um but we're also I
(26:51):
think that's another thing that that we're looking that we really are proud of here is trying to be
good stewards of nature in all of our Parks as you mentioned before um buckton Park is a plus
maintenance you know we're constantly mowing we're constantly weeding we're constantly trimming we're
(27:11):
always want that to look like a perfect garden the entire all the acres are there where we go
to denel skki park which all we do is mow a little Half Mile Trail and the rest of it is
just let to grow as it's supposed to so we have all different levels of parks you can
go see and picker has exactly that it has the A+ the turf like you got on the softball field that
(27:33):
we're always fertilizing we're always seeding it we're always doing everything to keep it
we're touching it every single day where there's section of picker that I'm sure people have not
seen for you know three months right so we have all those levels of things um nature is important
to us so when we're talking about birds we're talking about bees and butterflies and and um
this initiative that I know Angie started a few years ago of if you see milke weeds in places that
(27:55):
probably you wouldn't normally think of but that is that absolute habitat for monarch butterflies
and they're relying on that and they're becoming endangered species that we need to try to get back
so you'll see those if if I would say anything plant a milke weed in your yard right definitely
yeah and we burn the prair outa Pickard so yeah we've been trying to naturalize Pickard that
(28:19):
used to be mo or used to be ha and now we are been mowing it we're trying to get it back to you know
the more native state of it so um slowly through the process will get it going again so even with
when you talk about that process I mean how many years is it until like it's perfected or where
it's like this is the absolute best that we can do we just have to let it be type deal that's a whole
(28:42):
process and honestly I don't know we to do the oak Savannah the part we did do the two sections
we did do we they actually had to spray it and kill it off some of the grasses were too invasive
to let the um the natives come back so uh Warren County Conservation actually helped with us that
project um and they sprayed it for us and they came back I think it was twice three times um
(29:03):
and sprayed it and then they help actually came back and helped eat it off so that's how that got
nice and that's why that section is the nicest is because that they came and help us do that so
and the other sections have some of Bas of pairs coming up and other things like that
so we're trying to knock that down and get that maintained and then once we have the funding and
the once it's a priority um honestly when we'll get to the point of being able to possibly spr
(29:28):
any conservation to agree do it again um it's kind of up in the air right now so if they're listening
to this hey agree and Prairie takes multi- years to get established so the a whole win or a whole
summer of it looking dead like it we had to sign out there basically explaining what was going on
because it looked dead the first thing all those annual all those perennials do is go in the ground
(29:50):
and put their Roots way down into the ground um and then years after then they start coming up to
the top and then you you start seeing flowers and different things going on so four years ago when
this golf tournament was here in August it was what I call blacke Seasons I know they aren't but
the whole field there was probably three acres of black and yellow flowers and they were all
(30:13):
about six feet tall it was unbelievably amazing and then you can come three weeks later and it's
completely different color yeah yep yeah it's a good three four year process once you get it
seated to make it look and come to life and to really show its true colors I guess so to speak
see being the photo guy that I am I mean I'd be in heaven uh being able to capture and document yeah
(30:34):
I would say Pickard is awesome like at sunset time if you get there like late fall I got some pretty
cool pictures I think myself start sharing those yeah I have one in our office hanging of you know
the Prairie out there it was a yellow salido with the sunset and the oak tree and it it's co picture
I mean Indianola really is a picturesque Community I mean all across the board and I take a lot of
(30:57):
pride uh you know working and part-time living uh in town and I know both of you and the bulk of our
community as well I mean we are very proud to be here in Indianola and you two and your team and
the volunteers we have uh helping out with these efforts play a big part to make it what it is
today no question about it kind of switching gear since we are nearby the Veterans Memorial Aquatic
(31:22):
Center we can hear the kiddos having a good time uh the music's blaring uh at a good volume
it's not being a nuisance to anybody else um the pools open back up open back up on June 1st so
just as past Saturday as of their cording of this podcast just how exciting is it to have the pool
open for the summer season and talk about how maybe relieves knock gunwood while I say this
(31:46):
to have things um uh flowing and at good levels and and so far so good right Doug yeah pool is
um is alra rewarding because now we're seeing four or 500 people in there playing and having a great
time um but when we started in when we start going outside in April and start getting things
(32:06):
ready um it is an entire city operation to get it up and running um to Angie and her staff that are
obviously working on the beautification there to Afton and all of her staff and the lifeguards and
everybody cleaning everything because I mean it sits untouched for four months in the winter time
um it takes power washing every inch of that thing um getting all the pipes ready to go um crossing
(32:32):
our fingers that nothing happens in the winter time freezing and thawing and so on as much as
we prepare it and put anif freeze in and all those kind of things Mother Nature ultimately wins when
it comes to that um but our wastewater treatment plant guys were here for five or six days off and
on trying to get pumps on that were seized up um getting getting them running they're our experts
(32:54):
when you're talking about the sewer guys they have hundreds of these pumps all over the city
that they maintain all the time so they come in and help us Street Department comes and works on
this on the parking lot um obviously City Hall we hiring all the staff HR everything going on
there's 45 staff seasonal staff that work there every year um and then so Aon was there when we
(33:15):
turn the water on and he's all excited we're going to be see this and like I yeah I thought
it was going to just splurt out I've never seen it before and he's like oh there's 30 31 pumps
we have five six pumps in the pool what was the 30 I thought there were like 31 locations you
were like this is one oh there's 31 different valves and they all do different things so we
have all the features that you know each one to do different things or the slides each one of the
(33:37):
slides have their own Valves and so on so all those things all have to work and then then we
went to turn it on and one of those 11 that runs the circulation system obviously we couldn't close
so we had to wait call in event contractor to come in and fix all that um so it's always little bit
of a as you say we're in a park it's funny to say but all the little squirrels that jump ahead and
and keep us off our plan we were hoping you know to fill May 1st and hopefully turn the
(34:02):
pumps on May 3rd and I think it was like May 8th which still isn't seem like a long time but every
time you do something and you get delayed just like it rains when you want to plant that day
right everything always happens and we just have to fly again fly by our seat of her pants and get
it done yeah um we got everything open and we had a week or so for the water to get warmed up and
Sun helped us and then we have a heater there so um we got got everything open and then of course
(34:26):
we get 400 people that everybody jumps in with a half a gallon of maybe not a half a gallon but
feels like a half a gallon of sunscreen and all that sunscreen goes into the water and instantly
clouds it up so um as as you as we visit any pool in the world anywhere please please please put
your sunscreen on earlier than later don't do it at the last minute and please take a shower
(34:50):
so you can get everything off of you that may be if you were just mowing the yard or whatever it
might have been obviously the grass clippings go in there our water has a six hour turnover so it
really literally takes six hours for all the water to get filtered through the system um once those
greases and oils and shampoos and makeups and everything that go in the water has to go through
the gutter and through our filters to clean it off so the next morning is brighten yeah but really I
(35:15):
mean it just takes a few hours like on Saturday like you said once the Pool opened up at 1 pm it
put I think it took maybe two three four hours until it's like hey we got to close restout the
day because if we can't if we can't see the bottom of the pool then we're going to close for obvious
reasons we can't have anybody unfortunately being at the bottom that we could we wouldn't be able
to see so it's ultimately for everybody's safety is why we Clos the pool down because of cloudy
(35:40):
water yeah and I know Aton Bradley who kind of leads all the efforts with at the pool she
couldn't join us here today of course because she's you know working leading the staff there
but just how instrumental is Aton to indola in the pool specifically of course but just from uh her
experience and her involvement and her training with that staff as well yeah so we have a really
(36:02):
good Core group that comes back year after year majority of our staff are all high school students
or even early college aged um once in a while we have an adult or two that might be a lifeguard or
something but um she develops that sense of family of this is the responsibility this is what it's
going to take this is what we expect out of you it's not just sitting in a lifeguard and being
(36:25):
Wendy puffer corn and you know stand by me right that just looks pretty this is you're going to
work hard and we expect you to practice we expect you to be able to make rescues you expect you to
be proactive and work on you know the kids that I'm not sure that little four-year-old should be
in this part of the pool let's make sure he's not right so we're always looking out for that
because we ultimately want everybody to be safe um at the same time a lot of the lifeguards are all
(36:49):
swim lesson instructors and they've done through water safety instruction classes so they can teach
kids to be proactive when they're around water so they're not Swimming by themselves they go
to the lake at least they're hopefully going to be safer if they go to a river for goodness sakes
we hopefully you don't swim in a river but if you do that hopefully you have the life skills
that can get you back out if you get in trouble or you're with somebody to know you have to swim with
(37:11):
somebody else so they can help you get out if if need be so um it's not it's it's lifethreatening
skill but it can be life-saving too right and so we got to treat it that way we want everybody to
be safe yeah um and so they work hard we put a lot of a lot of expectations on them and I think
they take pride in the fact that the facility is as clean and as and even though it's 26 years old
(37:37):
um it's we still keep trying to invest in it repair things take care of things as best as
we can um it has been People's Choice Award for the Metro the great the voted the number one pool
last two years in 202 and 23 so we're proud of that um and again it's it's just it's exciting
it's it's the start of summer right we have three months here let's enjoy it and let's hope it's 83
(38:01):
degrees and sunny every single day and we get a tenth of an inch of rain at night so Angie doesn't
have to water so much I think 75 anyway and people take care of their sunscreen in those body oils
right yeah but kind of with those next steps with the pool being 26 years old like you said and the
amenities aspect we talked about earlier in the episode here what are some of the next steps on
(38:24):
the horizon for the pool as you think about kind of the next stage the next life it could take for
the community yeah so we've worked with waterers Edge Aquatics um company that has looked done a
doing an evaluation of the mechanics of the of the pool right now um to kind of get an idea
of the lifespan of what kind of we can think to expect is it do we still have 10 years out
(38:45):
do we still have 20 years is it something that we got to go faster you know on replace um we'
like to get some more again eventually some more Community input as to what people would like when
it comes to the quatics world do we need bigger do we need different features do we need a Flow
Rider do we need a wave ride what what kind of things would people be there's so much out
there right there's so many opportunities um and we still have to have lap swimming and we still
(39:07):
need to have just that General Pool Recreation that goes on and the area for again for for swim
lessons and so people can can learn to be safer around water so we're working through that this
we've done some pre before this pool is full and now we'll do some more evaluation now that it's
running um I'd love to sit here and tell you that it runs like a smooth operation you know
every everything runs exactly like it's supposed to but it doesn't right it's all like it's night
(39:31):
it's like a 1994 Ford Pinto right it's it's got some issues that that once in a while that takes
a little bit extra you know not not not like it's being held together by MacGyver's duct tape but
sometimes feels that way we we have Gremlins in the pool and once in a while we we know how to at
least try to take care of them be nice to them and even during that time you know with uh you
(39:55):
know the warmer months right now there's still lots to do um still indoors and at you know our
other facilities as you think about culture and recreation from the IND Activity Center where
the Parks and Recreation Department is housed to obviously the public library and the indol
wellness campus just there's always something happening every single day right right so again
(40:17):
check keep check out indanol iowa.gov um see those updates in the Park and Recreation Department in
the wellness campus and Library um activity center for the senior center has Dunes in tre
once a month I have a concert again a concert once a month and we do the lecture series whe whether
it's Abraham Lincoln or we just did um laori Engles Wilder you know in the things the history
(40:38):
of whether it's history of baseball in Iowa or different things that we we'll talk about um to
daily activities whether um people that come and go knitting or play pool in the back the guys play
there or line dancing or yoga or lots of different AC yoga with goats too we did yoga with goats at
buckton Park on Saturday it looked like it was a good time Park was really full yeah it did look
(40:59):
back I saw those photos I'm like whoow yeah so it's a good ett Close Quarters there yeah so um
we have always have opportunities and things for every age um whether you know in the earli spring
we had some some IM magic Camp whether to that do that or um if you go to the activity center and
you want to be involved with Master Gardeners and ISU extension from waren County waren County they
(41:22):
working on a community garden there last year they had over 800 pounds of fruits and vegetables that
they harvested it'll be more this year because they've expanded some of that space so whether you
like to help with those kind of things you can see how that there's another good place to learn from
some experts right on how to grow your vegetable gardens or things like that so um there's so many
opportunities to play in t-ball t-ball leagues are starting up this week um used softball is
(41:46):
winding down adult softball's going we'll have flag football in the fall again like I talked
about so there's always plenty of opportunities um or you just want to go to Pickard and walk
around the Trails um you want to go to denski and wait around and I guarantee you'll see a deer
couple deer walk by on Saturday morning the pool morning we had the very youngest visitor I think
(42:08):
we've ever had to the pool and I have a picture he looked like he like a day old Fawn and his
mom walked across the parking lot wow so you never know what you're going to see every day wow I mean
all I'm hearing right now is just quality of life I mean it's checking all the boxes A+ across the
board and like I said because of both of you your staff me members and the volunteers and community
(42:28):
members that make this possible so I mean the the sky is a limit I mean seriously I guess lastly
is there anything else that either of you would like to share whether it be about you know next
steps uh within your roles and the things that the community could look forward to or just anything
that you think is important that we need to make sure that our listeners here right here right
(42:50):
now well I would like to say that to me as being a recreation in my in my blood doing this for gosh
well obviously I started playing sports or games or going to Parks or things or running around a
um clown swing and invaded when I was a kid at the fairground so I mean those are the memories that
(43:14):
you're going to make um it's so so important for us to connect to Our Generations our neighbors our
grandkids our grand you know our grandparents our great-grandparents our aunts our uncles and and
when you have a chance for anybody to come visit take them to BU Park um take them to the pool take
them to places to give them what experience in Yola is but ultimately come to the parks to and
(43:37):
connect with your neighbors and your friends and again it's important for us to get away from the
stress of life every single day so that's why we have what we have um 2020 a lot of people don't
like 2020 we know we're not going to mention that evil word but that's when so many people
understood the investment that we made made from 1905 when the buckton family donated buckton park
(44:02):
to where we are now to having trails to having parks to having places where people could gather
in a pandemic where they could still at least have a sense of normaly right yeah and I think
even too and when you and I have talked about this in the past Doug is um you know the long
hours and the long days um they're grueling but when you are able to see the smile of a kiddo or
(44:25):
be able to kind of help bring a memory to a family makes it all worth it right sure exactly yeah and
i' welcome anybody to come to BU Park and just check it out um and visit all of our Parks you
know like Doug mentioned theel like that's a little hidden park that most people don't even
know where it's at likei I've never heard of that check it out there's a little Trail there
(44:46):
you know it's a half a mile loop I think yeah and in the springtime I guarantee you'll find
moral mushrooms in the timber right it's just a little hidden park um so yeah allive Parks
have just like you said mentioned ear are these different unique aspects to them um to visit and
check out and you know buxon has the Children's Garden now and there's grandparents that bring
their kids there and families that gathered there and you know now there's people since Co actually
(45:09):
since 2020 certain people now come to buxon and just have their little picnic like coffee Club
um on certain mornings um and then yoga there's G to be a yoga every Tuesday I think now this
summer something new um so yeah there's just different opportunities out there and just you
know check it out see where you can find to try out and experience exactly yeah you can find all
(45:31):
this information online whether it be the city of Inola website at www. indola iowa.gov also check
out experience IND yola.com again that's that tourism initiative between the indola Chamber
of Commerce and the City of indola and stay connected with us on social media whether it be
the Parks and Recreation and all their respective channels the city of indola itself on all of our
channels and there's lots of information out there on the digital world and of course the quarterly
(45:56):
magazine so uh those will be delivered to all 50125 zip codes here before too long at the end
of the month so lots of great information from Parks and wreck the city of course and just the
whole Spectrum but uh no Doug Angie I just want to thank you guys both again for joining me on this
episode of Indie unplugged uh this is probably going to be my favorite episode because again
(46:17):
we are outdoors and I think I'm going to have to keep up in the bar uh as we start to incorporate
video and go to all these other on-site locations so I hope you both enjoy enjoyed it as much as I
did um you don't have to answer that it's okay but no yeah just stay engaged with us Community
um check out all the episodes we have thus far U make sure you subscribe to all of our episodes
(46:40):
whether it be apple podcast Spotify iHeart Radio you name it all this information again lives
on www. Inola iowa.gov and who knows maybe next time you'll be a future guest of Indie unplugged
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