Next Stop, PRLEA!

Hello again Park People! 

The last week and a half of my internship was definitely a time to remember! In that short amount of time, I was able to learn so much and develop new skills I never thought I would have. I started off the week at Independence Hall again, still working in the maintenance division. However, this time I worked alongside the Masons to replace stone slabs on Oriental Avenue, which is a cobblestone walkway that is used by many people every day. The first step of this process was to use a Jack hammer to break up the older stone that was there. All of that stone was shoveled into trash bags to be disposed of by the sanitation part of maintenance. This took most of the first day since it required a lot of manual work and heavy lifting. Once the area was cleared out, it was time to start mixing the concrete that would be used to lay the stone. I, along with another ProRanger, was able to mix the concrete and get a few of the slabs laid before the end of the day. When we came in the next day, we got right to work on laying the rest of the slabs of stone we had left. I was even able to cut one of the slabs to the correct size using a power saw that would be used, which was very cool since it was something I had never done before. I really enjoyed this project since it required a lot of heavy lifting, mixing, etc. This is definitely a skill I will remember for my own future usage. 

Using the Jackhammer to break up old stone

Mixing cement

Oriental Avenue after all of the new stone slabs were laid

 

After taking my “weekend” days off Wednesday and Thursday, I headed back down to First State on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. There was not much to do on Friday since it was raining, so there were not a lot of visitors at the park. We decided to use this time to pick up trash throughout the picnic area, since littering is one of the biggest issues this park faces. One of the biggest takeaways I’ve gotten from this internship was that the role of a Law Enforcement Ranger is not just Law Enforcement. Law Enforcement Rangers also help the other divisions within their parks in order to keep it nice and maintained. While at this shift on Friday, we got word that there was an “unplanned social event” being promoted on Instagram with the location of the park on the flyer. That is when the action began. The Chief of Maintenance at First State, along with Ranger Fernandez, got updates from other local agencies about what the plan would be to try to stop this event from happening. After the discussion, it was decided that we would be back bright and early at 6am at First State.

Once we arrived on Saturday morning, we closed the Smith Bridge parking lot. This is where most of the traffic within the park happens, so it caused some people to be a bit upset. I worked alongside another ProRanger to ensure that people were parking in the open, designated parking lots and not along the roads where the no parking signs were. This was done by directing traffic, closing and opening parking lots, and driving the UTV around to find cars parked in places that they should not have been. This went on for a few hours until a meeting occurred that included the NPS, Delaware State Troopers, Delaware State Park Rangers, and New Castle County Police. They discussed which roads would be best to close down in order for the event to not be able to happen. Once these roads were closed down, we patrolled the park and made sure everything was kept under control. It was very cool to see all of these different agencies work together to stop this event from occurring. We ended up working in the park until 6pm that night.

Using the UTV to patrol for illegal parking

The Sunday of that weekend had the main focus of traffic violations. First State has a problem where people will park on the grass right in front of the “No Parking” signs. We used the day Sunday to educate the public about how parking in these spots destroys the land and causes unsafe traffic patterns. We were able to get a good number of visitors to move their cars, which was very cool to see. We also used the day to go over Handcuffing techniques since both of us are starting the academy soon. The rest of the week was used to assess storm damage on the trails at First State. Luckily there was not a lot of damage on the trails, but the Smith Bridge picnic area definitely saw some damage due to the water level of the creek rising dramatically.

Damage from the storm at the picnic area

 

Overall, the experience I had at both of these parks was amazing. I was able to learn so much about Law Enforcement, as well as what goes on behind the scenes in order for these parks to run smoothly. I am very excited to take all of this information I have learned and apply it both while at the academy and in the field. Now that the internship has come to an end, it is time to go full force into the academy to become a great ranger! Thank you for following along in my journey!

 

Until next time,

ProRanger Moore