This position leads, coordinates, and performs landscaping operations across Montgomery County’s parks and recreation areas, ensuring aesthetically pleasing, safe, and well-maintained common areas. The Lead Grounds Technician is responsible for supervising a team, prioritizing landscaping tasks, and ensuring high-quality landscaping services that enhance the public's experience in the County’s Park system.

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This position leads, coordinates, and performs landscaping operations across Montgomery County’s parks and recreation areas, ensuring aesthetically pleasing, safe, and well-maintained common areas. The Lead Grounds Technician is responsible for supervising a team, prioritizing landscaping tasks, and ensuring high-quality landscaping services that enhance the public's experience in the County’s Park system.

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JOB QUALIFICATIONS – KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

Knowledge of:

• Principles and practices of landscaping, turf care, and garden design.
• Trade tools, equipment, materials, and techniques used in landscaping and parks maintenance.
• Personal Protective Equipment.
• Safety precautions and potential hazards encountered in maintenance activities.
• Working knowledge of occupational hazards (OSHA) and safe work practices.
• Pertinent Federal, State, and local laws, codes, and regulations.
• Excellent public contact and customer service skills.
• Traffic laws and ordinances.

Skill in:

• Leading and motivating a team to accomplish tasks.
• Supervising, training, and developing crew members.
• Troubleshooting landscaping and equipment issues.
• Operating and maintaining all assigned vehicles or equipment.
• Performing a variety of semi-skilled maintenance and landscaping tasks.
• Following procedures outlined in print and electronic technical manuals.
• Reading and interpreting policy and procedure manuals.
• Performing heavy manual labor.
• Communicating effectively with crew members, supervisors, and the public.
• Organizational and time management to prioritize duties to accomplish a high volume of work product while adapting to constant changes in priority.
• Applying judgment and discretion in resolving problems and interpreting policies and regulations.

Ability to:

• Lead the team in performing turf care activities including overseeding, fertilizing, irrigation, topdressing, verticutting, weed abatement, pest control, and aeration and maintaining facilities to a high standard.
• Perform detailed work accurately and independently in compliance with stringent time limits requiring minimal direction and supervision.
• Ensure that all resources, including materials, supplies, and equipment, are utilized efficiently within the allocated budget.
• Monitor and track the usage of tools, equipment, and materials to minimize waste and ensure that purchases are aligned with operational needs.
• Establish and maintain accurate records of assigned activities and operations.
• Communicate professionally with other crew members, supervisors and members of the public.
• Communicate clearly and concisely, both orally and in writing.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with those contacted in the course of work.
• Interpret and implement local policies and procedures; written instructions, general correspondence; Federal, State, and local regulations.
• Maintain professionalism at all times.
• Work as a member of a team.
• Perform mathematical calculations required of this position.
• Work the allocated hours of the position.

WORK ENVIRONMENT:

Work is performed indoors and outdoors, requiring mobility and physical activity. Work environment includes exposure to noise, fumes or airborne particles, toxic or caustic chemicals and subject to slip, trip and fall hazards as well as mechanical operations injury risk. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate to loud.

PHYSICAL AND MENTAL REQUIREMENTS/ACTIVITIES:

• This work requires frequent exertion of up to 50 pounds of lifting/moving or force and occasional lift, move or drag 75 pounds or more while performing essential functions of the job.
• Work regularly requires the ability to stand, walk, sit; use hands to finger, handle or feel; reach with hands and arms; balance, stoop, kneel, crouch or crawl; and speak and hear.
• Specific vision abilities required by this job include close, distance and peripheral vision; depth perception; and the ability to adjust focus.
• Acceptable verbal and conversation skills to effectively communicate with others in English.
• Ability to read and write English and interpret documents such as safety rules, material safety data sheets, operation and maintenance instructions, procedure manuals, and so forth.
• Ability to recognize occupational hazards in work activities and take safety precautions.
• Work is frequently performed in a noisy environment around mechanical equipment.
• Work may include outdoors in seasonal weather extremes.
• Exposures could include toxic chemicals, seasonal temperature extremes, and other possible unknown hazardous materials.
• Maintain mental capacity which allows the capability of making sound decisions and following directions.

The intent of this position description is to provide a representative summary of duties and responsibilities that will be required of positions given this title and is not a declaration of the specific duties and responsibilities of any particular position. Employees may also be assigned job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.

Montgomery County is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with the requirements of the Civil Rights Act of 1966 (Section 1981) and 1964 (Title VI, VII,) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), Equal Pay Act (EPA) and the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA).

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Department: Parks & Recreation

Pay Grade: 80, Non-Exempt

Starting hourly rate: $24.45

Minimum Experience:

• Minimum of 2 years of experience in landscaping, with at least 1-2 years in a supervisory or leadership role.

Minimum Education:

• High School diploma or equivalent

Certifications, Licenses:

• Must hold a valid driver’s license.

• A pre-employment criminal background check is required.

This position leads, coordinates, and performs landscaping operations across Montgomery County’s parks and recreation areas, ensuring aesthetically pleasing, safe, and well-maintained common areas. The Lead Grounds Technician is responsible for supervising a team, prioritizing landscaping tasks, and ensuring high-quality landscaping services that enhance the public's experience in the County’s Park system.

GENERAL POSITION DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The following duties are normal for this position. However, they are not to be construed as exclusive or all–inclusive. To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each duty satisfactorily. Other duties may also be required or assigned.

• Oversee the daily operations of a landscaping crew, ensuring that landscaping tasks are performed according to County standards. Provides direction, training, and support to crew members, ensuring efficient and quality landscaping work.
• Performs inspections of park grounds and other facilities, identifies landscaping needs (such as plant health, turf conditions, and aesthetic improvements), and establishes priorities. Assign tasks to crew members and monitors progress to ensure goals are met in a timely manner. Prepares season opening and closing for each assigned area.
• Leads the planning and execution of seasonal landscaping tasks, including spring and fall planting, mulching, turf renovation, and seasonal flower bed installations. Oversee the closing and opening of landscaping features in preparation for seasonal changes.
• Performs landscaping activities such as planting, weeding, mulching, fertilizing, watering, and pruning plants, trees, and shrubs. Overseas or participates in the design and creation of flower beds, ornamental plantings, and other landscape features.
• Maintains walking trails with stone or asphalt patches; ensures the trail is clear of any obstructions.
• Maintains detailed records of landscaping activities, including plant inventories, seasonal changes, and maintenance schedules. Ensures that all work is documented, including labor, materials, and equipment used for each project.
• Manages invasive vegetation in and around parks, greenways and greenbelts. Prunes healthy trees using proper pruning techniques. Remove dead or hazardous trees in the parks. Removes fallen leaves. Plants new trees and grass.
• Supervises tree planting, pruning, and removal as necessary. Oversee the care and maintenance of green spaces, ensuring they are properly landscaped and cared for throughout the year.
• Leads efforts in turf maintenance, including mowing, aeration, overseeding, fertilization, and pest control. Ensures that grass and turf areas meet County standards for health, aesthetics, and safety.
• Sprays herbicides/pesticides to control weeds on County property.
• Operates maintenance equipment, including but not limited to, both steering column and lap bar zero-turn mowers, gas powered string trimmer, gas powered backpack blower, push behind mower, push behind turbine blower, pressure washer, and backpack sprayer.
• Operates and maneuvers oversized vehicles and attachments up to, but not limited to single axle dump trucks, heavy equipment trailers, and landscape trailers.
• Cleans, lubricates, and performs preventive maintenance or repair on equipment.
• Works with other department staff to prepare parks for special events, community programs, or other park-related activities. Ensures that landscaping is aesthetically ready for public use.
• Ensure all activities are carried out in a safe manner; adheres to all safety regulations; ensures all regulations pertaining to the safe use of equipment are understood and followed.
• Report all accidents to the appropriate authority. Follows all policies for reporting.
• Maintains appropriate records including complete equipment repair history, work orders, daily job card, and other related data.
• Completes written records of labor and materials used for each work project.
• Reports to work for after-hour needs, as assigned.
• Perform emergency repairs and work as necessary.
• Position requires working evenings, weekends, special events and some holidays.
• Other duties as assigned.

FISCAL RESPONSIBILITIES

• This position has no fiscal responsibilities.

COUNTY ORGANIZATION DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Represents the Department and County to other County staff and members of the public.
• Provides quality customer service to individuals needing directions or assistance.
• Demonstrates the organization’s Core Values and adherence to the Ethics policy.

SUPERVISORY RELATIONSHIPS:

Reports to the assigned Crew Supervisor of the department. Works under the scope of general policies, procedures and objectives and is carried out in accordance with standard practices, instructions or previous training. Incumbent has no supervisory responsibilities.