DEPARTMENT FUNCTIONS

The Grounds and Facilities Division of Parks and Recreation, is responsible for maintaining over 750 acres of landscaping and beautification throughout the City of Macon. The areas include various park sites; from small neighborhood parks to Central City Park, the eight recreation centers, the Senior Citizens Center, the two tennis centers, City Hall, downtown Macon, Booker T. Washington Community Center, various traffic islands and rights-of-way, four city cemeteries, and additional areas that we are asked to help landscape and maintain each year.

We maintain a full-service greenhouse where we grow the majority of all the plants, flowers, and shrubs used around the city.  Our duties include but are not limited to, mowing, trimming, weeding, pruning, and fertilizing all parks and beautification areas that we maintain. We plant our flower beds and park landscaping highlights once in the spring for the summer and once in the fall for the winter. We constantly work these areas to keep them beautiful. We have rose beds that require constant attention. We have two prison details that help with mowing and trimming downtown.

We are responsible for four cemeteries: Rose Hill, Evergreen, Fort Hill, and the Old Seventh Street Cemetery. We have a regular prison detail that helps us very much with maintaining them along with our regular grounds crews. The Grounds & Facilities Division is called upon to help maintain many additional areas across the city. These include E911, Eastview Police Precinct, Police Training Academy, Medical Dispensary, Fire Administration, Fire Station 92, Cherry Street and New Street Parking lots, Shurlington Library, Building Maintenance, Guy Paine Road Crime Lab, the Macon Centreplex and Chamber of Commerce. We mow and trim these areas as well as plant and maintain all the flower beds and landscaping.

Our Grounds and Facilities Division also maintains various traffic islands and rights-of-way throughout the city.

We have an urban forestry program also, headed by our City Forester, who reviews and responds to all tree-related service requests throughout the city. The City Forester advises developers of proper tree care in new developments and serves as a technical adviser on various landscaping projects throughout the city. The forester also works with many civic clubs and neighborhood associations to coordinate planting projects on public property in the fall and winter. Service requests, which usually include pruning, removing, or planting trees, are completed by one tree crew that has been trained in proper tree maintenance. Also, a contract crew is used to remove large trees that cannot be safely removed with the city's bucket truck.

The Grounds & Facilities Division is called upon to work with many special events each year; such as the Cherry Blossom Festival, the Downtown Council Street Party, the Cherry Blossom Street Party, and other activities that come to the Centreplex. We have 37 employees in the division. Of these, five are administrative, four are temporary and 28 are general labor force personnel.

Parks & Recreation Functions:

• The Administrative and Business function of the department oversees the overall operation of the department, development of facilities, budgeting and scheduling of unsupervised facilities.
• The Operations Division is responsible for comprehensive programs and scheduling of services at recreation parks and centers and at swimming pools. It also provides for special populations and senior citizens.
• The Sports & Activities function is responsible for comprehensive programs in team athletics, golf and tennis.
• The Cemetery function handles the sale of lots and burials at the City's three cemeteries: Rose Hill, Evergreen and Fort Hill.
• The Grounds & Facilities staff maintains public areas. The staff is also responsible for the upkeep of the City’s trees.