LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- On a pleasant Tuesday afternoon, a group of young men traded buckets and friendly trash-talk during a game of pick-up basketball on the court at Victory Park.
Basketball is doable at Victory Park, but football or soccer would be a different story, because the grass there is taller than most knees at some spots.
At the nearby California Park, it's the same story: a lack of mowing and upkeep.
"It looks kind of abandoned. It's a nice park, but it just looks abandoned. It looks kind of sad," said Ginny Dickerson, who visits the park with her three kids twice a week. "I do think they need to mow more and pick up all the limbs and brush that's everywhere. For the most part, that's my main concern."
Despite the tough budget cycle, the city is trying to do more.
"Be patient with us," said Dr. Mesude Ozyurekoglu with Louisville Parks & Recreation. "We're really, really working on it. I am. This is No. 1 on my to-do list."
Ozyurekoglu was recently promoted to assistant director to help make grass-cutting better and more efficient at city parks.
In all, Louisville has 120 parks, which total around 6,000 acres, but it has just 73 people to mow parks, which means each park is typically only cut once a month — generally, once every 24 to 31 days.
In a budget hearing in early May, Parks & Recreation director Dana Kasler said that schedule is "not an acceptable rate" and promised improvement.
"We had quite some improvement over the past few weeks," Ozyurekoglu added.
Ozyurekoglu said, over the past month or so, the department completed its first-ever data analysis of mowing. The department moved schedules and equipment around to make mowing cycle more efficient. After the changes, Ozyurekoglu said each park will be cut every 21 days.
However, even the three-week cycle might not be enough to create a noticeable difference.
"First of all, my wife would kill me," Metro Councilman Kevin Kramer said during the May 8 hearing. "I'm hopeful that's not acceptable — 21 days."
Both Kasler and Ozyurekoglu said improvement won't stop there. That's good news to Kramer and people like Dickerson.
"They need to do it at least twice a month," Dickerson said.
Ozyurekoglu said she'd ultimately like to get every park to just a 14-day mowing cycle.
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