April 1, 2010

The City of Colorado Springs has landed a deal with Emerald Isle Landscaping to keep Acacia Park maintained.

After the City of Colorado Springs announced that budget cuts would prevent maintenance in many of the city's parks, Emerald Isle volunteered to take care of one of the city's downtown parks.

"When times are tough you have to pitch in a little bit," said Joe Ostrand, Emerald Isle's director of operations in the Springs."  It's Acacia Park - it's downtown, and city needs to be proud of it."

He presented his idea to the city and after negotiations the deal was finalized in late March. 

Now Joe Ostrand and his crew will be able to keep the park looking the way a park should -- green and beautiful.

He hopes the idea will catch on and that other landscape companies will also volunteer at the city's parks.

"Ostrand will provide park service two days per week.  Services will include mowing, edging, trimming blowing, playground maintenance and trash removal

According to the City, the contract enables the city to put its resources elsewhere, and also helps save wear and tear on its equipment. 

Emerald Isle will start on the job immediately.

Excerpted from the Colorado Springs Business Journal

August 2009

Is it possible to build a new parkway, enhance the entryways to Grand Junction and use attractive landscaping which uses less water at the same time?

It has been nearly a year since the grand opening for the seven-mile-long Riverside Parkway, where 80 percent of the landscaping along the parkway is xeric.

The root of the word, xeros, comes from the Green word meaning dry.  Xeric landscaping includes plants that are compatible with an area's climate and may include many plants native to an area and can tolerate times of drought once they are established.

The design of the parkway was part of a program to create attractive entrances to the city, focusing on Fifth Street, 24 Road at I-70 and Horizon Drive at I-70.  The Gateway Committee was established with members from City Council, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the Visitor and Convention Bureau and the city's Public Works and Parks departments to achieve that goal.  This committee established a consistent design for these gateways and along the Riverside Parkway.

There are three areas along parkway that have enhanced landscaping with grass -- the Fifth Street bridge entryway to town, the Riverside neighborhood and the 25 Road bridge.  Sod is along only 20 percent of the parkway.  The rest of the parkway, or 80 percent of the roadway, is xeric.

The parkway as planted with 706 trees, 9,987 shrubs and 4,431 perennials.  All of the planting consists of trees and shrubs from a list of very low to moderate water-use plants.  Granite mulch and bark mulch help retain moisture, and drip irrigation waters all of the non-sod areas.  As these trees, shrubs and perennials mature, they provide an attractive addition to the community.  Without landscaping, the city would constantly battle weeds along the parkway.

The total amount spent on landscaping on all three phases of Riverside Parkway was $1.3 million, plus another $714,506 for landscape irrigation systems.  Out of a total project cost of $110 million for the Riverside Parkway, 1.8 percent, or slightly more than $2 million, was used for landscaping and irrigation of the project.  The city parks department maintains the landscaping on the parkway. 

Excerpted from The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel