[0:00] - I think it's important to be a good, [0:02] viable community and neighbor. [0:04] Hi, I am Mike Weiss. [0:06] I live on Countryside Park for 35 years. [0:09] For the last 25 years. [0:10] After the kids got a little older, [0:12] I started doing some work in the park. [0:14] So when the adopt a park sign went up a year ago [0:16] or so, I thought, I'm already doing it, [0:18] let's make it official. [0:20] And we had a really bad buckthorn issue in some areas [0:23] of the park and the berm areas [0:24] and around behind our houses. [0:27] So it started out just kind of doing that cleanup [0:30] and then it kind of carried into more about, you know, [0:33] doing some general maintenance work around. [0:36] What I can do, [0:38] grunt work without power tools [0:41] and that. I can get the stuff into piles [0:44] and then the maintenance crew will come around with a truck [0:48] and load it up and take it away. [0:51] And I usually just let 'em know, [0:53] but sometimes they see it and they just take care of it. [0:56] The city came in and did a really nice cleanup job last [0:58] year, so a lot of that buckthorn is gone. [1:00] We have a restoration project in place where some of [1:03] that buckthorn was the worst. [1:05] So it's been a minimal amount of work this summer, [1:08] which is great, but there's still stuff to do [1:10] and I think we still have improvements [1:11] we can make too, working with the city. [1:13] And so it's great that you can take that extra thing [1:16] and take it to the next level. [1:17] You can open up a line of communication hopefully, [1:20] and be able to have good conversations [1:22] with City Park maintenance on issues in your park. [1:25] It's in all of our best interests for people [1:28] to beautify our parks [1:29] and make them really viable for the community. [1:31] And it helps with our property values. [1:34] So that's another reason that I like [1:37] to volunteer. [1:39] And it's really not that much of my time [1:42] and it does feel really good to help [1:44] and the results are worth it. [1:47] And you can see that it took me probably 20 minutes [1:51] to do what I did here. [1:52] So for those that are thinking about doing the adoptive park [1:55] program and are concerned about it, you can do as much [1:58] or as little as you want. [1:59] It's a great program to volunteer [2:00] and once you get in, you'll feel really good about [2:02] what you're doing and you can get your neighbors [2:04] to join in with you. [2:05] That's awesome too. So, it's a good program to do. [2:12] That's probably it for today.