Public Employee Press
Parks News
32-year veteran is tops in Parks
“What we do is not just about cleaning up parks, but entails beautifying them, bringing our best and not taking away from nature,” said Mark Ford, a 32-year veteran of the city Parks and Recreation Dept., who oversees the Queens Greenhouses in Forest Park.
At the recent Parks Annual Awards presentation in Flushing Meadows, the agency named Mark Ford Parks Employee of the Year. The honor came as a total surprise.
“I’ve done nothing on my own,” Ford said. “Two things I credit as intrinsic to my winning this award are my staff and my union.”
Ford, a Parks Supervisor 2 and proud member of DC 37 Local 1508, oversees operations at the three Queens Greenhouses and the horticulture center in verdant Forest Park. He works with about 85 people, including Gardeners in Local 1507 and unionized Parks employees in various titles and locals, as well as groups of volunteers from the Community Parks Initiative.
“I look for creative input from the staff,” Ford said. “We are a team so I’m interested to learn their vision and what plants they would like to cultivate.”
They grow seedlings, store bulbs and propagate more than 250,000 colorful annuals and perennials that are planted every spring in public parks and gardens throughout Brooklyn and Queens. They also care for more exotic species like tropical canna, monstera and palm trees that are used to beautify special annual events, such as beach openings and the US Open tennis matches in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park.
Ford began his career in public service at the Parks Dept. in 1985 as a City Parks Worker in the Bronx and a member of Local 1505. He worked as an Associate Parks Service Worker in Local 983, wending up the Parks Dept. career ladder through civil service promotional exams to Parks Supervisor 2.
Dependable and dedicated, Mark Ford has done almost every Parks job from lawn care, snow removal and extermination to building ball fields and maintaining some 900 green streets. He also instructs workers on operating and repairing landscape equipment and machinery.
The parks Ford cares for are an integral part of New Yorkers’ lives and attract millions of tourists annually, providing a welcome respite from the city’s hectic pace and concrete cityscape.
“We are especially proud and happy that Parks management recognizes Mark Ford for his abilities, diligence and leadership,” said Local 1508 President Mike Zeno.
