Morgan County Parks and Recreation employees attend a continuing education seminar with Larry Hannah on turf maintenance. | Special to the Enquirer

The Morgan County Parks and Recreation department, rather than district shops, will now oversee the five parks in Morgan County, according to new parks superintendent Charles Stinnett.

Stinnett said the change will help with the efficiency of the department.

“Now all the groundskeepers at each park will be under the same management,” Stinnett said. “We were not having any specific problems, but we feel this system will benefit the parks. Each park will now have equal standards across the board, and we can work on specific training for all parks and rec employees.”

They had their first continuing education class Tues., April 7 with Larry Hannah.

“Larry Hannah from Hannah’s Lawn and Landscape service was able to speak to us on turf maintenance,” Stinnett said. “We really appreciate him spending his time teaching us about lawn care, and we hope to do more classes like this. With this restructured system, we can provide these helpful classes for all the parks in the county.”

Another information session was scheduled for today on infield maintenance at Wilson Morgan Park in Decatur.

Stinnett said some parks employees had attended occasional educational seminars in the past, but not on a regular basis and not all employees were involved.

The commission voted on this change, and county commissioners pledged to continue to help with park maintenance and updates as much as possible.

“The commissioners have cooperated extensively with this new system, and they are still willing to help take care of our county’s parks,” Stinnett said.

Stinnett was recently appointed to the newly created parks superintendent position after working at West Park for almost 10 months. Previously, he owned a landscaping business for 12 years.

The parks department is already planning updates, including putting Bermuda grass on all fields.
“We are in the process of preparing the fields for Bermuda grass now,” Stinnett said. “We will also have an annual property management award this coming July to honor the hard-working groundskeepers. We do all of this so our county can have nice parks for the community. We want visitors to be able to take pride in them and want to come back.”