Santa Fe residents’ desire for cleaner, better-maintained parks was on display during a recent meeting about this year’s Fourth of July fireworks show at Franklin Miles Park.
Several people asked if the city would make improvements to the park ahead of the celebration. One man didn’t mince words: “Right now, it’s pretty awful,” he said.
Mayor Michael Garcia’s administration is set to present this week the proposed city spending plan for fiscal year 2027, which he has said will shift work away from contractors to in-house city staff, including in the Parks and Open Space Division.
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Garcia said he believes the transition — which won’t happen overnight — should allow the city to ultimately receive a higher level of service for less money.
Paige Grant, right, takes one for the team as she teaches fifth and sixth graders from Aspen Community School about the watershed by getting doused during a gardening event at Alto Park.
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Jim Weber/The New Mexican
He noted, however, requirements baked into the city’s land use code have expanded the number of city parks with new developments — without increases to the parks division’s budget. With 77 parks, Santa Fe has roughly one park for every 864 residents, based on recent population estimates. That’s more than double the rate in Rio Rancho, which has one park for every 1,753 residents, and much higher than Rio Rancho, which has one park for every 2,359 residents.
The heavier demand on Santa Fe park maintenance crews comes this year as the Garcia administration strives to balance a laundry list of priorities with a flat budget.
Last year’s mayoral election came in a political environment dominated by dissatisfaction with the status quo. Park maintenance was a top priority for many Santa Fe residents, along with hard-hitting topics such as crime, homelessness services and housing.
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Without an influx of new revenue, Garcia said, additional park maintenance would likely mean less money for investments in other areas.
The mayor hopes to have a communitywide conversation after the budget is finalized about whether the city could find ways to “reenvision” some parks to make upkeep of the public spaces less labor-intensive or rethink how properties are used.
“These are going to be hard conversations, but I want to ensure that we are setting up the city to successfully meet the needs of the residents,” Garcia said.
For example, he said, the city should ask if residents believe every park needs to have grass.
“If the answer to that is ‘yes,’ residents have to understand that is going to require more maintenance,” he said. “It’s going to cost more, and the city ultimately has to figure out where those resources are going to come from.”
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Councilors are expected to receive the budget proposal Wednesday. It is scheduled for introduction at the May 13 council meeting, followed by two days of budget hearings.
Ongoing conversation
Santa Feans have long been frustrated about the condition of city parks. In 2008, city voters approved a $30.3 million bond for parks and trail upgrades. But a 2015 report found the money was seriously mismanaged, and at least one project on the list never materialized.
The New Mexican created a “report card” of city parks in 2017, assigning grades based on appearance, cleanliness and the quality and condition of amenities. The newspaper surveyed 29 parks and gave more than half a C or D grade.
In an interview the following year, then newly elected Mayor Alan Webber included improved park maintenance as part of a broader “family-friendly” agenda at City Hall. But his two-term administration continued to face criticism about park conditions, including complaints from families about trash, needles and poorly-maintained play equipment.
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The City Council discussed parks at length in spring 2025 while preparing the spending plan for the current fiscal year, and councilors added $633,900 into the $479 million budget to hire an additional contract crew for median maintenance, so city staff could focus more heavily on parks.
City residents “expect a higher level of service than we are providing at this moment,” Councilor Jamie Cassutt said at the time.
Parks and Open Space Division Director Melissa McDonald said the proposed budget for fiscal year 2027 includes funding for the contract crew.
“We’ve now brought all of our parks up to a little higher standard, and this is going to help us continue to stay at a good level,” she said.
McDonald said the budget proposal also includes funds for more park workers. If the funding is approved, the division could start hiring when the new fiscal year begins in July.
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The national average of park maintenance employees for a city of Santa Fe’s size is 71, McDonald said. Santa Fe has fewer; the budget proposal would get the city up to 58.
Fifth and sixth graders from Aspen Community School paint rocks to decorate the pollinator gardens at Alto Park during an event last month.
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Jim Weber/The New Mexican
Many employees in the division have worked with the city for close to 20 or 30 years and are nearing retirement age, she said, creating opportunities for others interested in building a career at the city.
The ideal parks employee? Someone who likes being outside and wants to give back to their community.
“For somebody who really wants to have an immediate impact, this is a great place to work,” McDonald said.
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Meeting service goals
Over the past year, McDonald said the parks division has improved its output, using a methodology called “level of service goals,” which ranks all parks and medians based on certain criteria.
On a scale of 1 to 5, with a score of 5 being the poorest, McDonald said the average level of service at parks citywide was a 3, comparable to a C grade. Since then, she said, the parks division has achieved its goal of raising 50% of its parks to a 2.5 level of service in the current fiscal year, which ends June 30.
As part of the assessment process, maintenance crews evaluate criteria including equipment, weeds, graffiti, turf aeration, trash, restrooms and benches.
Some parks have seen significant improvement, McDonald said, including Fort Marcy park, Alto Park, Ragle Park, Salvador Perez and Amelia White Park on Old Santa Fe Trail, which has undergone a major renovation in partnership with volunteers from the Santa Fe Garden Club.
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But the division continues to wrangle with a growing number of parks as new housing developments lead to more green spaces being dedicated to the city.
Several developments underway will come with additional park land, including the long-planned Los Prados housing complex on South Meadows Road, as well as additions to the Las Soleras and Tierra Contenta subdivisions on Santa Fe’s south side.
Fifth and sixth graders from Aspen Community School painted rocks to decorate the pollinator gardens at Alto Park.
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Jim Weber/The New Mexican
A report prepared by Garcia’s transition team said the city will need to increase its maintenance crews to keep up with the level of demand without service levels dropping.
Garcia said he believes the open space requirements in the land use code need to be overhauled.
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“As these parks are developed, the city has to then take on maintenance,” he said, straining its capacity.
How Santa Fe compares
Garcia said it is no surprise the city is struggling to keep up with maintenance needs, given its number of parks, in comparison with those in other cities.
The New Mexican examined the number of parks in five other municipalities in the Land of Enchantment: Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Las Cruces, Roswell and Farmington. While several other cities have more total parks than the 77 in Santa Fe, the City Different’s number per capita is significantly higher.
What counts as a city park also differs from city to city.
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A spokesperson for the city of Farmington said that city has 58 “park properties,” which include trails and sports fields, while a spokesperson for Roswell said it has 26 official parks, “plus numerous sports fields and recreational trails.”
Las Cruces spokesperson Maddy Leatherwood wrote in an email the city has 99 park sites, but the total rose to 152 with the inclusion of sports fields, trails, medians and landscaped buildings.
Santa Fe’s 77 parks do not include trails and other open spaces the parks division oversees or properties like the Marty Sanchez Links de Santa Fe golf course and Municipal Recreation Complex.
City budgets and staffing also vary dramatically, with Albuquerque’s parks budget for the current fiscal year at $52 million and Rio Rancho’s at just $2.6 million, while Santa Fe’s is $16.2 million.
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Employees also vary, with cities providing different breakdowns of seasonal and full-time workers.
Employee numbers for the Santa Fe Parks and Open Space Division have fluctuated over the past 10 years, according to city data, but a 1-to-1 comparison is difficult because of changes over time to how positions have been classified internally.
The Public Works Department, which includes the parks division, has struggled in past years with high vacancy rates, but McDonald said more recently it has seen successful recruiting efforts, including attracting younger workers.
The workers’ level of expertise also makes a big difference in the quality of parks, she said, noting the division is putting more focus on training supervisors and rank-and-file staff.
Despite the heavy workload, she was optimistic about the division’s future: “We’re continuing to constantly improve and create really great spaces for our community.”
NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – An EMT student will get more than $287,000 over an injury he received during a training course. In March 2024, an employee with Wellness Studios Inc. took a group of EMS corps students, including Alejandro Guillen, on a hike to Embudo Canyon as part of the wellness portion for the class.
According to the lawsuit, a boulder came down at one point on the hike, hitting Guillen and pinning him underneath. Guillen suffered life-threatening and permanent injuries. He sued the state, claiming the employee leading the hike was not trained in first aid and organizing a hike. The lawsuit was settled for $287,500.
CIBOLA COUNTY, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexico’s caves attract hundreds of explorers each year, but those adventures can lead to dangerous situations requiring emergency rescues, and local first responders are learning how to do them. The National Cave Rescue Commission held a two-day rescue course in the Malpais National Monument this past weekend. The instructor told KRQE News 13 that participants learned how to provide first aid in one of the most difficult environments.
“Cave rescues are particularly difficult because of the limited resources available in those environments. Caves themselves are often very large underground spaces with extended travel times, so you may not be able to get resources that you request for many hours,” said Sarah Truebe, Regional Coordinator for the National Cave Rescue Commission.
Albuquerque Fire and Rescue was one of the agencies participating in the two-day weekend training, alongside other emergency responders, volunteer search and rescue personnel, and members of New Mexico’s caving community. The training included first aid, communication skills, proper transportation of injured patients, and technical rescue. Instructor Sarah Truebe says aside from first aid, participants also learn to be mindful of the environment and how fragile the ecosystem is.
“It is very easy to get really mission-focused and to just go straight to that patient and not think a lot about the environment around you, but because these resources are so fragile and rare, we really want to take care of that resources as well, while we’re doing the rescue response,” said Truebe.
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In all, 14 instructors hosted a group of 31 participants. Truebe said that between Arizona and New Mexico, there are usually one to two cave rescues a year, but said that last year they conducted six rescues. Truebe said their next training course will be held in October in central New Mexico. She said the date will be posted online once that training is scheduled.
