The beautiful Spring weather is here, and it’s the perfect time to get your sweat on outside!
Our Champions Club group fitness instructors are committed to providing world-class experiences for our Champions Club members, and we know they are the best in town. We want to share our incomparable group fitness classes with the entire community. The Outdoor Fitness Spring Series is the perfect opportunity to come together, get our sweat on, and enjoy the great outdoors in our beautiful parks!
Join us this month for this short series of fun, free classes located in different parks throughout Southlake and taught by our one-of-a-kind group fitness instructors. We'll raffle off an awesome swag bag of gear to one lucky participant during each class.
Mark your calendars for these fantastic free classes:
Wednesday, April 13 - 6:00-7:00 PM
HIIT/Stretch with Megan
North Park
Monday, April 18 - 6:00-7:00 PM
Stretch/Yoga with Rebekah
Bob Jones Nature Center
Saturday, April 23 - 9:00-10:00 AM
Bootcamp with Skyler
Champions Club Outdoor Turf 1
Wednesday, April 27 - 6:00-7:00 PM
Zumba with Ann, Rosy, Cristina
Aria Amphitheatre
This limited series is open to all ages. No registration or membership is required. See you at the parks!
The beautiful Spring weather is here, and it’s the perfect time to get your sweat on outside!
Our Champions Club group fitness instructors are committed to providing world-class experiences for our Champions Club members, and we know they are the best in town. We want to share our incomparable group fitness classes with the entire community. The Outdoor Fitness Spring Series is the perfect opportunity to come together, get our sweat on, and enjoy the great outdoors in our beautiful parks!
Join us this month for this short series of fun, free classes located in different parks throughout Southlake and taught by our one-of-a-kind group fitness instructors. We'll raffle off an awesome swag bag of gear to one lucky participant during each class.
Mark your calendars for these fantastic free classes:
Wednesday, April 13 - 6:00-7:00 PM
HIIT/Stretch with Megan
North Park
Monday, April 18 - 6:00-7:00 PM
Stretch/Yoga with Rebekah
Bob Jones Nature Center
Saturday, April 23 - 9:00-10:00 AM
Bootcamp with Skyler
Champions Club Outdoor Turf 1
Wednesday, April 27 - 6:00-7:00 PM
Zumba with Ann, Rosy, Cristina
Aria Amphitheatre
This limited series is open to all ages. No registration or membership is required. See you at the parks!
Texas winter is always up and down, but thankfully we are finally in Spring! There's no better time to play at the park now that the weather is warming up.
Southlake boasts numerous gorgeous public parks, and there’s nothing better than getting outside and playing with friends. Our PLAY at the Park program is a great way to get your kids active outdoors. Each month, we’ll choose a different Southlake Park to explore on a beautiful Saturday.
Apart from the incredible scenery of our public parks, our staff will provide structured activities to create a fun-filled day for all participants. Games, activities, hiking trails, and open space will make this a day to remember. Participants receive a yummy lunch to keep them energized as they play outside!
Here’s a look at our upcoming PLAY at the Park outings:
Claim your spot and get outside! Register here.
With Fall well underway, there’s no telling when the weather will take a turn for the worst. What does rainy weather mean for our field availability?
There are multiple considerations our hard-working Parks Team evaluates when deciding to close a field due to weather. Today we put ourselves in the shoes of a Parks Supervisor to get a deeper understanding of the field evaluation process.
What to look for when closing a field:
1. Safety Always Comes First
The first things we look for are the safety and playability of the fields. If the field appears questionable, you need to evaluate whether someone can perform their usual actions during a game. For example, can they run and make a cutting or stopping action safely and without hurting themselves? Resident safety is our priority, and we want to eliminate the risk of accidents as much as possible.
2. Preserve Our Fields
The other thing we pay attention to is the preservation of the fields.
When you play on a field with soft or wet turf or infield areas, it becomes damaged and will not respond to these same conditions the next time we have rain. Areas with turf or infield damage will create wet spots that retain water and makes it harder to drain or flow with the pitch of the field. Consequently, this could create safety concerns and the potential for injuries.
3. Manage our Resources
The last aspect we evaluate comes from a resource management perspective. How much would it cost in time and money to address issues created by playing on fields during unideal conditions? Fixing a damaged field includes re-leveling areas with soil, reseeding, resodding, aerating, extra infield leveling, and inserting more infield material.
As you can see, a lot of thought and consideration goes into deciding to close a field due to weather. In the end, it all comes down to safety. Our mission is to create world-class experiences for those that use our fields. That includes making sure they are safe, clean, and green!
With Fall well underway, there’s no telling when the weather will take a turn for the worst. What does rainy weather mean for our field availability?
There are multiple considerations our hard-working Parks Team evaluates when deciding to close a field due to weather. Today we put ourselves in the shoes of a Parks Supervisor to get a deeper understanding of the field evaluation process.
What to look for when closing a field:
1. Safety Always Comes First
The first things we look for are the safety and playability of the fields. If the field appears questionable, you need to evaluate whether someone can perform their usual actions during a game. For example, can they run and make a cutting or stopping action safely and without hurting themselves? Resident safety is our priority, and we want to eliminate the risk of accidents as much as possible.
2. Preserve Our Fields
The other thing we pay attention to is the preservation of the fields.
When you play on a field with soft or wet turf or infield areas, it becomes damaged and will not respond to these same conditions the next time we have rain. Areas with turf or infield damage will create wet spots that retain water and makes it harder to drain or flow with the pitch of the field. Consequently, this could create safety concerns and the potential for injuries.
3. Manage our Resources
The last aspect we evaluate comes from a resource management perspective. How much would it cost in time and money to address issues created by playing on fields during unideal conditions? Fixing a damaged field includes re-leveling areas with soil, reseeding, resodding, aerating, extra infield leveling, and inserting more infield material.
As you can see, a lot of thought and consideration goes into deciding to close a field due to weather. In the end, it all comes down to safety. Our mission is to create world-class experiences for those that use our fields. That includes making sure they are safe, clean, and green!
Every once in a while, a Facebook page pops up that captures the heart and soul of a community. A large part of our Park and Recreation Story is told through the lens of the Southlake Parks Facebook page.
The Southlake Parks Facebook page exemplifies the success that comes when innovative employees showcase the unique joys of their daily lives with our community. With over 4,000 followers, the Southlake Parks page is the brainchild of a few Parks employees, who wanted to document their experience and share their passion for the job with the Southlake community.
It’s no secret that we take our parks seriously in Southlake. With 36 public parks covering a total of 1,139 acres of public space, keeping our parks in tip-top shape is not for the light-hearted. Not only is it an immensely physical job, requiring copious amounts of endurance and muscle-power, but it is also a surprising job. You never know when you might run into a critter that calls a Southlake public park home.
Scrolling through the Southlake Parks Newsfeed, Southlake residents and fans from all over are treated with up-close shots of unconventional neighbors such as frogs, worms, and snakes. Our dedicated Parks employees love to show off the majestic creatures they meet on the job. The page also serves as a warm-hearted outlet to uplift and showcase fellow Parks employees. By sharing their story every day, Southlake Parks employees provide a behind-the-scenes look at the labor it takes to maintain our parks to world-class standards. The followers and likes the page has amassed demonstrates that the Southlake community appreciates this type of personalized storytelling.
We asked the face behind the Parks Facebook Page, Landscape Technician Jose Guzman, to tell us more about running the page.
My Park and Recreation Story: Jose Guzman
What’s your job, and how long have you been with the City?
I’m a Landscape Technician and a Playground Safety Inspector. I’ve been working with the City for seven years.
Why did you decide to start the Parks Facebook Page?
My work partner and I decided to share some of our daily work life on Facebook. I had just started working for the City, and I was amazed at how beautiful the parks were in Southlake.
What type of content do you try to share?
I like highlighting some of the daily work that we do. I also enjoy sharing the different parks and their amenities. My favorite is sharing our Southlake nature, “Neature.”
What do you hope to accomplish with this page?
I hope people see the great parks that we have, and it gets them out and about to enjoy them. There are so many hidden gems around town that many people don’t know about, and I hope they will take the time to explore them.
What’s it like interacting with the community and the large following you have amassed?
I like getting messages from people that see a certain playground, park, or trail, and are curious about their location. I love giving them suggestions and perhaps sending them to their new favorite park.
We love keeping up with the Parks Department’s adventures, and you can too by following the Southlake Parks Facebook Page. Thank you to our Parks team for helping us tell Our Park and Recreation Story every day!
Fall is a “treemendous” time in Southlake, and the City is giving away five trees in a special contest to celebrate.
To play, you’ve got to get outside! We’ve got twelve trees that we want you to find in our beautiful parks. You’ll know them by the signs that we’ve placed in front of them. There is a story behind each tree, and we will tell their stories over the next several weeks on the City of Southlake Facebook page and the Experience Southlake Facebook page.
To be eligible for our Treemendous Scavenger Hunt, all you have to do is find the specified tree in our parks, take a selfie in front of the tree, and email it to talktous@cityofsouthlake.com with the subject line “tree scavenger hunt.” In your email, be sure to include your name, address, and telephone information (entrees are limited to Southlake residents). Due to email size limitations, please send each tree selfie entry in a separate email. Each selfie submitted counts as one entry, and only one submission is permitted per person, per featured tree.
The contest ends at 11:59 p.m. October 26. All eligible entries will be part of a random drawing with winners announced on Friday, October 30. Look for the winners’ names on the City and Experience Southlake Facebook pages, My Southlake News, and ExperienceSouthlakeTexas.com/Treemendous. The trees will be delivered to the winners on Friday, November 6, Texas Arbor Day.
Full contest rules can be found on the contest website, and all guidelines must be met to be eligible to win.
Good Luck! The complete tree list is below. We’ll see you at the parks!
