The Doctor Makes His Rounds

Rudy Juarez spends most days hopping on merry-go-rounds and sitting in sandboxes--and still gets paid for a day’s work.

As a playground equipment “doctor” for the city’s Recreation and Parks Department, Juarez treats ailing merry-go-rounds and sandboxes as well as slides, swings and any other contraptions children play on.

“You have to be a little bit of a jack of everything,” Juarez said of his unusual occupation. “You have to be mechanically inclined, and you have to know something about chain-link fences, concrete work, gearing motors and reading blueprints.”

Juarez inspects and repairs the 56 San Fernando Valley parks with playground equipment. He and four others work from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. traveling in vans equipped with a workbench and power tools.

The program was launched in September, 1986, as a reaction to the growing number of lawsuits charging the city with faulty playground equipment.

“If anybody gets hurt or, if anybody tries to sue us, or when we need to replace new equipment, I have an itemized list of the last time I inspected and repaired things,” the 46-year-old Juarez said.

Juarez said the program’s priority is to ensure the safety of children who play in the park.

“If there’s anything hazardous to kids, we drop everything and get that done first so we’ll have no problems,” Juarez said.

If graffiti have soiled a park, Juarez is there to paint over them, particularly if the words scrawled are ones that children should not read, he said. If a piece of equipment is vandalized, Juarez replaces it with new, sturdier stuff. If a swing set or slide is worn but is still usable, Juarez gives it a face lift by repainting it in bright colors.

Occasionally, the city authorizes major overhauls and Juarez tears out old park equipment and replaces it with a state-of-the-art recreation area.

Juarez recently completed a favorite project: the addition of modern, colorful play equipment to the Hansen Dam Recreation Area in Lake View Terrace. “We went in there and made a complete play area,” Juarez said. “Now there are more kids playing there than there ever were.”

Juarez now is overhauling 50-year-old Pacoima Park. He has installed 15 pieces of new equipment including swing sets for both toddlers and older children, a merry-go-round, a spiral slide, a large sandbox, which is “better looking and safer” than the existing one, walking bridges and “rockabouts,” updated versions of the teeter-totter.

When he goes home, his two children, whom he describes as “park regulars,” clamor to hear all about the parks their dad has frequented.

And then there are the parents at the park who regard Juarez as something of a savior.

“I get a lot of compliments from the mothers,” Juarez said. “They’re very glad we have the program and wonder why we didn’t start this before.”