CHAPTER XI 

 MAINTENANCE 



Maintenance as used in this chapter includes all activities of a park 

 department relating to the upkeep of material properties, real and personal. 

 Maintenance may also include original minor construction work and the 

 carrying forward of unfinished construction projects such as, for example, 

 the continued development of plantations. There are two main reasons 

 why maintenance is one of the most important and fundamental of all the 

 activities of a park department. They are: 



1. Capital investments, especially investments in improvements, are 

 conserved. Maintenance is the only antidote to depreciation. It cannot 

 prevent depreciation entirely but it can prolong the life usefulness of improve- 

 ments for a far longer period than would be the case if maintenance is 

 neglected. Herein lies one of the very great weaknesses of a majority of 

 the park departments in the United States. It is safe to assert that more 

 money is wasted through improper financial provision for, and lack of, con- 

 stant maintenance than through any other phase of park activity. Money 

 may be wasted through ill-advised purchases of real property and through 

 improper plans and poor construction, but the losses through these sources 

 are as nothing compared with the losses through rapid deterioration of 

 improvements because of inadequate resources for controlling depreciation. 1 



2. Maintenance ensures the effective functioning of all the human 

 service features of each area in a park system. This involves a never-ceasing, 

 up-to-the-day care of these features in order to keep them as nearly as 

 possible in the perfect condition of service they were in when they came 

 from the minds and hands of the designer and the engineer. 2 



A third reason, a psychological one, may be given. People are always 

 greatly influenced in their conduct by the conditions of their environment. 

 They are more apt in their use of the facilities in the parks to be more 

 careful of these facilities if they see that there is neatness, cleanliness and 

 order everywhere about them than if the contrary prevails. 



1 In park systems having a divisional executive organization maintenance is likely to be distributed among 

 several different divisions rather than wholly concentrated within a division of maintenance. Hence references 

 to maintenance will occur in Chapters on "Recreation, Horticulture, Zoological Gardens, Botanical Gardens, Sani- 

 tation," etc. Special attention is called to maintenance notes in the Chapter on "Horticulture," pages 671673. 

 Operation and maintenance. This expression is frequently used in connection with park work. Operation 

 as considered in this manual is a general term including maintenance, perhaps, but referring specifically to all 

 those functions of a department having to do with the organization and direction of the human uses of the 

 properties and facilities. 



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