Lawrence has grown so big, officials say, that it’s no longer efficient for parks on the city’s west side to be directly run by workers with offices on the east side of town.

So the Parks and Recreation Department is splitting the parks into three districts, each with its own administrator and maintenance staff. Officials say the result will be more efficient use of taxpayer dollars and better-maintained parks.

“Basically, what we’re trying to do is eliminate ‘windshield time’ and improve staff efficiency,” said Mark Hecker, the city’s superintendent of parks and maintenance. “I think this is going to improve the quality of our parks.”

Before December, the city had different crews with different specialties — horticulture, athletic field maintenance, equipment maintenance and the like, all with different supervisors — servicing all the city’s parks.

“The problem was that we had seven different crews maintaining one park,” Hecker said. “They were passing each other on the road.”

District One covers most of Lawrence west of Iowa Street, south of 15th Street and west of Kasold Drive to the north. District Two covers most of Lawrence east of Iowa, plus most of the area between Iowa and Kasold north of 15th Street. District Three covers north Lawrence and most of the area along the Kansas River.

Command isn’t completely decentralized under the new plan. The supervisors still will report to Director Fred DeVictor, who also oversees departments that manage the city’s community buildings and aquatic centers.

The new setup solves several problems, officials said:

After unleashing frisbee discs down the hill, Lawrence residents Curtis Williams, left, and Sean Dennard walk through Centennial Park near Ninth and Iowa streets. The Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department is splitting into three districts to help maintenance crews more efficiently care for a growing number of jobs and projects in city parks.

l Under the old system, it wasn’t uncommon for a parks worker on a mowing crew to pass a broken swingset with barely a second glance.

“They weren’t neglecting their job,” Hecker said. “It just wasn’t their job to think about that stuff.”

Now that the mower is part of the same crew as specialists in other fields — all sharing one supervisor — the broken swingset should be reported and repaired more quickly.

“I think this is going to improve the quality of our parks,” Hecker said.

l Because some crews based in east Lawrence were servicing parks in west Lawrence, parks workers spent much of their work day simply driving from one task to the next.

“Depending on where they were, they could spend one or two hours a day getting to job sites,” Hecker said.

Now each crew is based closer to the parks it maintains.

The new position of park district supervisor has a base salary of $35,000. Two of the new supervisors already were in that pay range, Hecker said, and the third received only a small bump in pay.

Gary Hines, park district supervisor for District Two, said the new system already has improved the parks.

“I think parkgoers can already tell a difference in litter control, because we get to the parks more often,” Hines said.

The new structure puts Lawrence in a better position to handle the city’s future growth.

¢ Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department

“As we’ve grown in the last five, 10 years, Parks and Recreation added facilities, facilities, facilities,” Hecker said. “But we know we’re growing. It’s not going to stop.”