‘Find a way to make it run;’ Lehi City Council discusses multi-million dollar park hours, staffing after backlash

LEHI — City leaders discussed how they’ll handle the city’s recently opened all-abilities park Tuesday that’s been the subject of controversy.

Families expressed frustration with the Lehi Family Park’s hours, saying they want it open full time, while the city said staff are already having problems with visitors.

“I can understand why people are upset because our tax dollars pay for the park, and we feel like it’s not unreasonable to want to use it for half of the weekend,” Lehi parent Lindsey Lewis, who attended Tuesday night’s city council meeting, said.

Her 11-year-old daughter, Kaylee, said she was mad when she learned the park wasn’t open Sunday. She said the playground has more features than others in Lehi.

“It just has a ton of play structures,” she said. “You could go do this or you can do this, or you can slide down the slide, or you can go play in the water.”

Park and facilities manager Steve Marchbanks said a staff member must be present at Family Park while it’s open to handle maintenance of the equipment and grounds, and make sure rules are being followed.

“Unfortunately, at the city, we don’t have enough staff to just give one person Family Park,” Marchbanks said. “The person that is over that currently takes care of Family Park, takes care of Ivory Ridge, because they are both specialized with splash pads, and Dry Creek Park because it’s on the way.”

He said in the two weeks the park has been open, his team has seen many acts of vandalism and people misbehaving.

“Locks cut off gates, gates taken off hinges, we’ve had human feces next to the restrooms, dogs everywhere in our park. It’s clearly posted, please no dogs,” he said. “Parents lifting their kids up on the shade structures, on the front entry gates, staff being yelled at, sworn at, flipped off. A group of teens just kicking the ADA swings.”

Marchbanks said, since March, his department has spent $32,000 in vandalism costs at other city parks. He said this is a prime reason why this new park, which was a multi-million dollar investment, needs staff on the grounds.

“It’s not just your neighborhood park that you’re going to,” he said.

He addressed several questions, including why the park is fenced, following complaints about the single entrance.

“If you have a little kid and he runs over here to this slide and you lose track of him, which, this playground is large enough, you’re going to lose track of them, you can go to a single location and your child will be safe and you’ll be able to find them,” Marchbanks explained.

He said the issue he’s hearing about most is misinformation circling online that the park would close in October.

“We didn’t work this hard to keep it shut a minute after we opened it,” he said. “We want this thing enjoyed. Do we think that it needs to be closed for the winter? Yes, I do think it needs to be closed for the winter.”

Marchbanks said snow cannot be mechanically removed from the park’s ground materials, nor does chemical ice melt work.

He said he’d like to implement a soft closure date for the winter months, but has his reservations about how the public would respond to that policy. He said he thinks it’s best if specific dates were announced for the winter closure.

Marchbanks proposed four staffing options. He said keeping Family Park open on Sunday and throughout the winter months depends on cost.

Some would keep the park open year-round, seven days a week, others would cap it at six days a week with a winter closure.

Marchbanks recommended Option B.

“My preferred option would be option B, which is adding a full-time employee and another part-time employee with a truck. This is an annual cost though, this isn’t a one-time cost,” he said. “This is something that we’re going to have to pay for from here on out to make sure that these things get done.”

He said his team is already working a lot of overtime hours. Marchbanks said he wants to avoid lay-offs.

“I feel comfortable saying that I would rather do it with less staff and pay a little bit more money and have that assurity in life,” he said.

Marchbanks and some council leaders said that having crews work on Sundays takes away from their personal time with their families. They voiced concern that, if they expand Sunday hours for Family Park, the public would expect they do the same for other city facilities, which they can’t afford to do.

Resident Hailey Sousa spoke in favor of keeping the park open on Sunday, citing an online petition with 353 signatures at the time of the meeting.

Marchbanks said they never intended to have the park closed on Sundays.

Lindsey Lewis asked about the park’s budget and what it was intended to cover. Mayor Mark Johnson said the project was $17 million, which covered fixed costs. A portion of that was allocated toward a park bond.

The mayor declined to answer a question from a resident about installing cameras at the parks. He said the parks do need better, on-site signage.

Lewis said she wants better communication from the city. She said it makes sense to have the park open during a day when most parents are home.

“I think having it open for the same hours on Sunday as every other day, anywhere else in the nation, I feel like people would expect that of a public park,” Lewis said.

The City Council has not decided when the park will be open moving forward. The mayor said they’ll discuss the options proposed tonight and will make an announcement soon, but said their policy could change in the future.