Several days a week Felix Montoya transfers the Latin meaning of his first name, “luck”, “fortunate”, “happy”, to our physical and emotional experience of Roosevelt Park. Among the Parks and Recreation crew that holds up the 3-year long, $2.8 million renovation of our Civil Works Administration-era park is this particularly noteworthy individual. Mr. Montoya combs the slopes of Roosevelt with his stroller bag and “picker upper” tool, empties trash receptacles, removes fallen limbs, supplies the doggie bag dispensers and reports irrigation problems. And he is delighted to be doing it as his third career, with his own GMC truck.
Finely tuned for multiple uses, William Perkin’s excellent landscape renovation, a Sustainable Sites Initiative Project (http://www.sustainablesites.org/pilot_projects/), brought us back to Roosevelt in 2007 with our families, our dogs and last but not least, with our trash. Chronic garbage overflow, despite the best efforts of most to pitch in, immediately deteriorated park time (dogs disagree: yum, chicken bones) and threatened to drive away the critical mass of citizens needed to keep all corners of the 13 acre park a friendly, welcoming oasis.
That threat was nimbly wiped away by Area Supervisor Dianna Solano-Savage’s decision to hire Mr. Montoya. “I started at Roosevelt with the Parks Department last July (2010). It is so nice here in the cool summer mornings under the trees. My doctor asked me ‘what are you doing, Felix? You are so healthy!’ The only thing different is that I walk all the time in my new job.”
Montoya was raised in San Mateo, NM, on the western foothills of Mt.Taylor where primary school included outside art classes and surreptitious hunts for pinon with pals. He graduated from Albuquerque High in 1956 and remembers when the south edge of Roosevelt Park was used informally as a dumping area. “The cars would pull right up here and people would toss things.”
Tiguex Park, Martinez Town I, and Old Town Plaza are also under Mr. Montoya’s care. Please thank him when you see him and please let the Parks and Recreation Department know that you value his work by calling (505) 768-5300 or 311.