By: Ernest Gurulé
In Pueblo, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department is looking for a few good young people to fill approximately 400 jobs across its system. With school ready to adjourn for the next two and a half months, said Steven Meier, there’s still some really nice part time summer gigs available.
Meier, Director of Pueblo’s Parks and Recreation, says in normal years most of the jobs are filled and just waiting for school adjourn. But for reasons he just can’t explain, the normal rush this year has been delayed.
Pueblo’s Parks and Recreation oversees parks, open spaces, trails, swimming pools, basketball courts, frisbee golf, a skate park and community centers. Jobs maintaining the grounds at the city’s parks including mowing, maintaining flower beds and park cleanliness. The city has long enjoyed a reputation as having some of southern Colorado’s premier open spaces. For those who have not visited Pueblo or have not visited in a number of years, it might be worth the trip. The city maintains more than seventy parks and green spaces.
The city also runs a mini-amusement park that includes rides for children and a carousel that looks like it might have been taken right off the set of the movie “The Music Man.”
Right now, Meier is looking for a staff to operate the rides, sell tickets and serve the food and drink at this mainstay City Park venue.
Meier said his department has “gone to a couple of job fairs” and gotten the word out via social media, but to date the only jobs he’s had luck filling are the aquatic jobs, lifeguard positions and pool staffing. “We’re doing pretty good there,” he said, estimating that the city’s near full staffing in that department. But for most other jobs, he’s guessing they’re only “half staffed.” We’re not quite at the panic stage,” he said. But if for whatever reason too few young people—high schoolers or college students—don’t apply soon, the department will have to consider cutting back hours for operation in a number of areas. Another reason he would like to fill all his open positions is for planning purposes. “You have to try and anticipate time off, sick time. You also have to manage things, so you don’t overwork anyone.”
Pueblo has long been known for the quality of its parks and recreational opportunities and is usually ranked near the top of the state’s cities in the way it operates its programs. Summer evenings across the park system are buzzing with softball, volleyball and a host of other activities. The ‘Slab,’ a series of basketball courts that divides the city’s busy north-south Elizabeth Street is a summertime hoops mecca with pickup games played well into the summer night.
No one who hires on for Parks and Recreation summer employment is going to get rich. But for a young person’s first-time job, said Meier, the pay’s not bad. “We start at $12.56 an hour and go up from there,” he said. Pay for managers and crew leaders—both opportunities to work into—can increase by up to two dollars an hour. Meier is hoping that he can get all of the city’s parks and recreation jobs filled as quickly as possible. The city’s pools along with the City Park’s rides open on Memorial Day weekend.
If a Pueblo high school or college student is looking for a good summer job, Meier recommends a visit to the city’s website. Summer jobs or even full time positions in the city can be found at www.pueblo.us/2462/Employment–Opportunities.
