High praise for parks employee

My wife and I live across the street from the Everett High School soccer field on 25th and Rockefeller. During this past week, we witnessed a performance that should be recognized. No, it was not an athletic achievement, although we can see part of the soccer field and most all of the softball diamond from our kitchen window. It was the work ethic of one of the city’s employees who was removing 6- and 5-foot-tall shrubs from the east side of Rockefeller.

Those shrubs had become a dumping ground for garbage including drug paraphernalia. They required a chain saw and the digging up of roots. If you’ve ever removed large roots by hand, you know it is physically demanding. One of the shrubs was still living and she recycled it in-whole to replant elsewhere. The easy thing to do would have been to get the chain saw, but she dug it up. Then each area was meticulously manicured, raked, small debris picked up (by hand), re-raked, topsoil laid, grass seed laid and lastly fertilizer or more topsoil placed. Then this person stood back and admired her work. She could not have been more professional in her duties.

I have watched this lady for over two years go about her work in and around Everett High’s campus treating it like it was her own yard at home. I came to know that she is the only woman employee in her work crew and is a single mother putting her daughter through college. She deserves the highest of praise. What a jewel the city has in her!

Lloyd and June Larson

Everett