Parks director leaves impressive legacy

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

It’s been more than three decades since Sue Heppeard became a Van Wert Parks Department employee. On Friday, the city honored her as she retires from the department she has led as director for the past 25 years.

Safety-Service Director Jay Fleming presented Heppeard with a plaque honoring her service and also talked about her contributions to the park department, while Mayor Jerry Mazur also presented her with a proclamation honoring her for her contributions to the parks system.

Heppeard started as a part-time worker in 1982 and became the full-time recreation coordinator in 1986. She became parks director six years later, in 1992, and the recreation coordinator’s position was folded in to her job description.

She noted Friday during a reception in her honor that the department has seen its ups and downs over the past 25 years, with the department hit hard by the 2008 recession that left her as the only full-time parks employee until the economy recovered enough to add others.

“That was kind of heartbreaking,” she said of being the only one in the department, as well as a lot of added work.

Prior to her retirement, Heppeard had two full-time maintenance employees to help her with the many tasks involved in keeping the city’s parks maintained.

With the failure of the city income tax increase, however, new director Kevin Longstreth, who has been with the department the past four years, will have to do those tasks with just himself and one maintenance worker, as well as summer workers and any local residents who volunteer to help out.

One of those volunteers will be Heppeard, who said she would help out in the parks, at least when she’s not traveling or visiting her grandchildren. Heppeard noted she has two grandchildren that are six and nine hours away, respectively, with another expected in late January or February.

Heppeard, who should know, said maintaining the parks is a bigger job than many people think.

“A lot of people think all we do is mow,” she said, noting that, in addition to mowing, parks employees clean and maintain restrooms, maintain ballfields and other facilities, such as playgrounds and tennis courts, clean the two concession stands and schedule workers to man them when games are being played, as well as schedule games at each of the parks system’s six ball diamonds and hire umpires to officiate. “The list is ongoing.”

Fortunately, volunteer organizations do provide valuable help for some of the city’s parks. The Master Gardeners group maintains the Children’s Garden at Smiley Park, while the Evergreen Garden Club beautifies Fountain Park, although city workers still take care of other maintenance work at that park.

“I can’t say enough about those groups,” Heppeard said. “The Children’s Garden wouldn’t look like it does without (the Master Gardeners).”

While all the current parks were in existence when Heppeard started with the department — with the exception of the newest one, Franklin Park — Heppeard has overseen development in several of the parks, including the addition of baseball and softball diamonds and a concession stand and restrooms at Jubilee Park, shelterhouses at Jubilee, playgrounds at both Smiley and Jubilee parks, the Children’s Garden, a gazebo and pavilion at Fountain Park, and lights for the tennis courts at Smiley Park.

She has also helped develop a number of park programs and activities.

Longstreth will also have a new park, Franklin Park, to maintain, although control of Memorial Park on West Main Street, is being ceded to the adjacent American Legion Post 178. Other city parks include a small one off Van Wert-Decatur Road, the Rotary Athletic Complex on John Brown Road, and maintenance of a portion of Rotary Park next to the city reservoirs.

While Heppeard acknowledges that the parks department is underfunded by the city — and may always be — and she has had to do the job the past 25 years with inadequate help and even less money, she said she has always looked at the parks as a community asset and she and her workers have done everything they could to keep them in good condition.

“We do what we can do with what we have,” Heppeard said, “and I think we’ve done really well.”