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| Brickman Partners with Client to Rebuild Cherished New Orleans Park |
New Orleans ? After almost three days of round-the-clock work, the team of Tim Taylor, Enrique Gutierrez and Lucio Hernandez felt like they had completed a very big puzzle. The underground irrigation system at New Orleans? historic City Park, which had been rendered inoperable by Hurricane Katrina, was once again spraying fresh water. The three employees of Brickman, the largest commercial landscaping firm in the U.S., felt great about their efforts.
The renovation of City Park?s irrigation system, albeit a small step towards recovery, highlights the contributions of private industry to the ongoing challenge of rebuilding New Orleans after the largest natural disaster in our nation?s history. The storm, which claimed nearly 1,700 lives and displaced thousands of families, offers painful reminders of its devastation at every turn ? from abandoned homes to groves of damaged and broken trees.
At the heart of the devastation was New Orleans City Park, a 1,300 acre expanse south of Lake Pontchartrain. Designated as a public park in 1854, City Park has grown to include a wide range of attractions including an antique wooden carousel and Story Land, a storybook fantasy play area brimming with 26 storybook exhibits designed by renowned 1950?s float maker, Blain Kern, Jr. In the days after Katrina made landfall, City Park was under more than four feet of water.
After learning that City Park?s irrigation system was in need of repair, Brickman dispatched a team of irrigation experts to fix it. Tim Taylor, a New Orleans resident who relocated to Austin, Texas in February 2005, was tapped as the maintenance superintendent to oversee the project. He was joined by Enrique Gutierrez and Lucio Hernandez, two irrigation technicians from Brickman?s branch office in Houston. When they arrived at City Park, they realized the amount of work that lay ahead.
Tim Taylor said, ?The City Park?s irrigation system was in really bad shape. None of the valves were working, the low voltage wires were cut in several places and we couldn?t trace all of the lines at first. Fortunately, we were able to create a map of the underground system and ultimately succeeded in getting the irrigation system running again. The project was really rewarding.?
Brickman?s efforts in New Orleans City Park are characteristic of the company?s long history of corporate philanthropy. In 1990, Brickman instituted a company-wide Founders Day to honor the memory of Theodore Brickman whose own commitment to community outreach dates back to when he started the business in 1939. During Founders Day, Brickman encourages employees in each of its 125+ branches to take a paid day off to pursue community service activities. Brickman also supports a wide variety of charitable programs at both the state and national levels; the company was awarded the first annual Community Service Award presented by the Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) in 2005. |
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