How to Get A Jumbo-Tron in A Park On A Diesel

Let me tell you, it’s an experience! The Jumbo-tron is on a huge flatbed on a semi-truck. First several people from the office, who had to get certified in traffic laws, post themselves in the street to stop oncoming cars. Slowly, the semi pulls out and begins backing in onto the park sidewalk. I had the task of lifting the mud flap behind one of the massive back wheels to prevent it from getting stuck between the wheel and curb and being damaged. Along the way to the middle of the park we had to climb on the back of the cab to free tree branches, etc. Once we got to the grassy patch in the center of the park we had 6 boards of plywood that had to be shuffled as the truck backed in to keep the back wheels from digging into the grass too much. At the end we had to space the 6 boards so each was under one of the six sets of wheels. Lesson learned- gloves are incredibly important when working with plywood!I was also a part of history this weekend as the first stakes ever were hammered into the ground at Murphy Park, the central location of Glendale’s events. In the past, tents were always weighed down with cement blocks, water barrels or sandbags. Due to the high winds expected today and possibly tomorrow, staking became essentially the only safe option. It was a huge step for the city and some big wigs, including risk management, came down to the park for hours to discuss the situation. However, only the handful of tents in a small section of the park that were being set-up by our tent rental company were allowed to be staked. Ironically, this is the first event where Glendale is not providing tents for the vendors and the strong winds have thrown a wrench into that! Although it was forbidden, a lot of the vendors who set up their tents today used small stakes to secure them- we’ll have to be writing up infractions for them at the end of the weekend. There was also a tent casualty today! I walked by a small 10 x 10 tent that a food vendor had set up early this morning with all of their stuff, 5 minutes later I walked by again and the tent had collapsed and blown away from the tables. The tent owners had left so a few other people from the events office and I tried to secure the tent with extra sandbags and opened some of the flaps/walls that were acting as sails. Unfortunately, this solution didn’t last long as one of the metal legs actually snapped with the force of the high winds! Hopefully the wind will die down tomorrow and make way for a relaxing event.