ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The newest addition to the City of Albuquerque’s Park and Recreation Department is hard at work striping away at the newly remodeled Los Altos softball park near Eubank and Lomas. “So far it has really outshined itself and proved its worth,” said Josh Herbert, CABQ Parks and Recreation Services Division Manager.
The city says two of these new turf robots will help save time and money. “In all throughout the season, it cost just in labor alone about $34,000 per year to mark these fields,” said Herbert.
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The robots are on lease to the city for at least the next year for a cost of $16,000, which covers maintenance and repairs. For now, they’re only being used at Los Altos Park where the city says the robots should be a big help covering five softball fields.
The work is also much faster now since two robots can paint a field in as quick as 10 minutes, compared to two people taking over a half-hour if they’re not busy with something else. “Manpower is not always readily available, but in order to really bring these to the next level we need to have assistance,” said Herbert.
So far the robots are only painting softball fields, but the city says there’s a possibility of using them elsewhere. “Our goal is Isotopes level premier facility so in order to maintain that we need as much help as we can get,” said Herbert.
