About the Department

The purpose for this position to provide clean and safe City parks, zoo and recreation facilities for the residents and visitors of Manitowoc.  This is accomplished through a primary focus on monitoring and ensuring park usage in accordance with park policies and city ordinance.  Additionally, a Park Ranger may be required to assist with lawn care, landscaping, trash collection, sports field maintenance, equipment maintenance, educational/recreational instruction and a variety of other tasks in parks/rec/zoo programs and facilities.  Employees in this position will take daily directives from a superior while being expected to work independently in high risk work environments regularly.  Park Rangers are expected to use sound judgement to ensure a safe and efficient work environment is maintained on a daily basis.

Working hours will be on an assigned schedule any day of the week including nights, weekends and holidays.   The employee works under supervision of the Parks and Recreation Division Manager.

Position Duties

• Being present in parks and communicating with park users.   Being social and getting to know park users and their needs.  Greeting park visitors and explaining the park rules and safety regulations.
• Provide interpretative, historical or informational resources to park users and renters, such as, park system maps/brochures and point out areas of interest, provide rental contracts/policies, park policies etc.
• Address parks related concerns on an “on call” format while on duty.  Receive and respond to manager/dispatch call, assess situation and take appropriate action. 
• Patrolling the park system and ensuring visitors are following the rules and not disrupting the natural environment, park facilities or other guests.
• Monitors park restroom facilities and locks each facility at end of each day.
• Issues verbal and written warnings to ordinance violators.
• Ability to contact PD when necessary for violations outside of park department jurisdiction.
• Regularly communicates with PD.  Documents any incidents that take place in parks and reports incidents to supervisor and/or PD.
• Conduct investigations and inspections within Park system. 
• Performs light facility and grounds maintenance throughout parks system such as; restocking toiletries, sweeping and mopping, garbage removal/litter pick-up and general trouble shooting based on needs of park users and facility renters.
• Monitors special events throughout city and provides support for events as needed.

Parks Labor Specific:

Minimum Qualifications

Education:                                   High School Diploma. An equivalent combination of training and experience may be acceptable if prior work experience provides the required knowledge, skills and abilities to perform in the Park Ranger position.

Experience:                                 Preferably some form professional experience with significant knowledge of park maintenance, public communication, ordinance/policy enforcement and wildlife/natural resource management is required. 

Certifications/Licenses:            Must possess a valid Wisconsin Driver’s license.

Other Requirements:                 Must be 18 years old. 

Other Qualifications

This position must possess the ability to apply exceptional situational reasoning a by exercising good judgment in stressful situations, decisiveness and creativity in complex situations; the ability to communicate effectively with Department staff, City employees and the general public.

This position must possess the ability to successfully operate personal computers and compatible software packages;  read and interpret documents such as safety rules, operating maintenance instruction, blueprints, government regulations and procedures manuals;  complete routine paperwork; effectively present information to other employees and supervisors; and basic math abilities including adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing in all units of measure, using whole numbers, common fractions, and decimals.  This position must possess the ability to interpret a variety of instructions or reports furnished in written, oral, diagram, or schedule form; and apply situational reasoning by exercising good judgment, decisiveness and creativity in an array of conditions and environments.  Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and ability to adjust focus.