Making the rounds on the grounds

Published 12:57 pm Wednesday, July 30, 2008

POULSBO — The North Kitsap School District is home to more than 110 acres of fields, grass lots, parking areas and playgrounds.

Keeping those 110 acres manicured in tip-top aesthetic and sports playing shape is the responsibility of seven individuals: the NKSD grounds crew.

In addition to many other outdoor housekeeping tasks, they mow, weed eat, pick up trash, clean out gutters, remove graffiti, conduct playground inspections and paint the lines for football games and the foul lines for baseball and softball games.

Now’s the time when the grounds crew attempts to catch up on its year-round work load.

“It’s probably our busiest time of the year because we have a lot of little things and when you multiply that by 12 schools it takes a while to do it,” said Julie Marfut, grounds lead.

Summer is also the time of year when working outside is great for the grounds crew. But the tables are turned the other nine months of the year.

When asked what his favorite task is, NKSD groundskeeper of 11 years John Stevens said with a laugh, “taking three weeks off in the winter.”

“This is a tough climate to be a groundskeeper in the winter,” he said while taking a break from mowing one of Kingston High’s fields Thursday.

Marfut said she copes with the soggy climate by “growing webbed feet.” But in all seriousness she just adapts and has found a few chores that are in fact easier in the rain.

“You just get used to it,” she said. “I prefer blowing leaves in the rain because when they’re too dry they just blow all over. If they’re too wet you can’t move them but with a certain amount of wetness you can do anything to them. These are the weird things groundskeepers look for.”

During the school year the crew is up and at it at 6 a.m. Two crew members are responsible for all the school sites, two are responsible for the fields, one addresses the irrigation and prepares the fields for athletic seasons and two are part time.

Regardless of the duty, all the grounds crew work with pride on their mission to make the district look beautiful.

Maruft said when she was a school site cleaner, a job she had for five years, her ownership of “her places” was huge. She used to joke with the other site cleaners that her half of the district looked better than the other half.

Stevens, who enjoys the smell of fresh cut grass, agrees.

“I take pride in my work, that’s the only reason I’m out here,” he said. “I like to make the grass fields look nice and have them look just as good as a lawn that doesn’t get as much wear and tear.”

He added he’s motivated by hearing a league football coach say the fields he’s cared for are the best looking in the league, which has happened.

Similar to every NKSD department or program, the grounds crew also feels the pinch of rising gas prices. Marfut said a few years ago to operate a regular hand pushed mower for a day it cost $8. Now it costs $20.

“Our budget is hurting,” Marfut said.

Budget woes aside, Marfut has made a positive observation: Trash seems to be on the decline.

She said to clear the North Kitsap High School parking lot of after-school litter used to take at least two hours. Nowadays it takes 30 minutes.

“Ten years ago the parking lot would fill a good full-sized garbage bag every day and now it’s about a quarter bag so it has gotten better,” Marfut said. “I’m not saying it’s still not bad, but it’s not as bad as it used to be.”

Unfortunately equalizing out the decrease in trash is a steady source of graffiti.

“We deal with a lot of graffiti,” Marfut said pointing to a box of handicap signs she had to order because several at KHS were ruined with a little spray paint art. “Sometimes it’s gang signs. Sometimes it’s curse words or body anatomy or names and silly stuff.”

The paint polluting hot spot continues to be the stop sign and yellow gates near the big rock at NKHS. However, KHS was hit a few times this summer, the pool/community center was targeted a few months ago and the windows and brick at Suquamish Elementary were the most recent victims.

But trash and graffiti removal is all in a day’s work for the grounds crew, which operates seven weed eaters, seven blowers, four regular mowers, five riding mowers, two 17-foot three-wing decker mowers and a few other field-sprucing machines.