Karl McCollester (00:05)
Welcome to Mighty Municipalities, the podcast about small municipalities and how they can punch above their weight. I'm your host, Karl McCollester and along with my co-host Mark Partin and our guests, we take you through the highs and lows of working in a small municipality. Whether it's the hardship and frustration that is holding you back or the progress and wins that are propelling you forward, we're here to share the lessons learned and give you strategies to help improve your community. Mark, how are you doing this happy Friday afternoon?

Mark Partin (00:32)
Doing very well and I'm happy to say next week I'll be on vacation, so looking forward to a little break and before the summer gets too intense, but ⁓ looking forward to a little vacation with the family. So

Karl McCollester (00:42)
Yeah.

That's

awesome. Yeah, that vacation with the family's always a great time. And you know, as I come back in, you go back out and we'll probably I'm sure maybe share that on a couple more occasions until the fall. Well today we're talking about a topic,

Mark Partin (00:52)
That's right. Yes.

That's right. Yes.

Karl McCollester (01:02)
close to your heart and interest and something that the city of Sumter has been working on. and that is workplace health and happiness and how that relates to nature. workplace health and happiness is an important factor in general, for our employees in delivering services to our communities and to our citizens and

one of the ways that we can improve that, studies have shown is that by working with our team to increase their access to nature and to the usage of the natural environment around them. there have been several studies to support this. there was a study that showed that adults who spend at least two hours per week in nature had significantly higher odds of reporting good health. there's another study

where they were looking at employees who participate in nature based activities during work hours, two hours twice a week for three weeks, had when they did their baseline

tests and then their test after the program was done. They lowered their burnout assessment score by 15%, had lower cortisol rates, and were in fact able to process things faster, about 7.5% faster, higher processing speed. So there are a lot of benefits both for the employee as far as them feeling better as well as for your team even potentially performing better. And so the

City of Sumter has taken some of these concepts to heart and as a result has been a founding member of what has become a a recent development, a statewide model called Nature at Work. And Mark Partin has been part of the team leading up these efforts at the city. So Mark, you know, tell us a little bit more how about the how the program came about and how Sumter got involved.

Mark Partin (02:38)
Sure. so first of all I'd like to say I'm a sub-member of the team, but the credit really goes to Jason Stoddard, who is one of our project managers here at the city of Sumter, and he, you know, asked me to be a part of it. And hopefully we can have him on a future episode to talk a little bit more about this initiative. but Jason is is very active in the outdoor world

you know, personally and professionally and he oversees our

Greenway projects and other outdoor initiatives among many other things. But this really came about through his participation in something called the SC 7, which is a program by Dr. Tom Mullikan, who is also the director of the South Carolina DNR department. And what that is is every summer they start on one side of the state and go across the state.

hiking, camping, visiting different locations of our state's incredible natural resources. So Jason got involved in that and through meeting other people within that system and environment

one of the people started this program called nature at work and for all the reasons you just said you know healthier happier people better workforce more efficient more effective lower cost of health care etc came up with this program that

Jason proposed and and the city jumped on board to encourage healthier, happier workforce and better environment to work in. And not only is it good for the individual, but it also creates

a stronger, healthier culture, which people want to come and they don't want to leave and go find other jobs. And through, different research I've done as well as many other people have done, younger generations are more interested in these types of programs versus just, you know, do I get a a pizza party or do I get, you know, a little voucher for a new

Karl McCollester (04:35)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (04:43)
gadget or whatever. You know, they just they want to know that they're cared about and they're supported in improving themselves personally as well as professionally. And this is one of the programs that that leads to that development of a healthier culture.

Karl McCollester (04:58)
So what are the foundations of this program and then what was the process f that Sumter laid out to to try to get started?

Mark Partin (05:09)
Okay, so there are four pillars to the Nature at Work program. And the first one is the built environment and that inde deals with your our office spaces, our entrances and exits to offices and green spaces around our work places and

Some of the initiatives we look at there are do you have greenery in your office or in your lobby? is the outside, just a slab of concrete or are there planters and other things out there? And then the second pillar is workforce wellness and that is where you're actually encouraging people to move more to get outside, to be physically active, not just in an exercise program, but maybe when you have a break instead of going to get a drink or a snack.

walk around for five minutes so that workforce wellness is to get people moving and active outside then there's environmental volunteerism and that is just what it sounds like it's do we take care of our outdoor space do we pick up litter do we have trees planted do we have parking lots that have plantings in them so that it's not only

beautiful but it it helps recycle the air and clean the air and all those things and then the last pillar the fourth pillar is education and awareness so it really is communicating in our instance to our employees this is what it means to be healthy this is what it means to to be involved in volunteerism this is what it means to

take care of our environment. So, we're really trying to educate them on the benefits of this. This is not just something we're doing to check off the box, but there are, research findings that support this and benefiting us as well as our community. So so that's the fourth pillar is education and awareness.

Karl McCollester (06:55)
I was thinking about some of the pillars you were talking about, I've been in offices with with plantings and those without. And especially depending on whether there are windows or not, that can make a huge difference, just in the the feel of the environment, for one. So I can definitely see that first pillar and then I'm definitely a believer in as I'm feeling

Mark Partin (07:03)
Yes.

Karl McCollester (07:16)
Yeah, because I'm going throughout the day if I'm feeling particularly

anxious about something or stressed about something as I'm going along, one of the first things I think about is at least going for a walk around the block and getting my heart moving and getting myself not thinking about about what I'm working on. And of course you'll end up thinking about what you're working on anyway, but just having that space sometimes certainly helps. I think what Steve Jobs was famous for, you know, having most of his meetings being walks with various employees and that it helped him think and and felt like better ideas came from that.

Mark Partin (07:27)
Yes.

Yeah, I know personally whether I'm thinking about a professional topic or a personal topic, just sometimes going for a walk gets my thoughts flowing better. that might not be the intent of my walk, but that's the result of my walk. So being active can have a tremendous impact on your mental health as well as your productivity. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Karl McCollester (08:04)
Absolutely. So

as the city started to kick this off, how did the city decide how to tackle this and what were some of the the programs that have been tried so far?

Mark Partin (08:15)
Okay. so Jason when he was proposing this, he he wanted to bring together a diverse group of people who could speak into each one of these different areas. So he identified our

city horticulturalist to be over the environment, the green spaces, if you will. And then we have a tennis center here. So he tapped one of the tennis pros who is in the fitness to look at the wellness side. And then environmental volunteerism, we went to our litter officer, and then he tapped me for whatever reason to be over education and awareness. So so he was very strategic in who he he selected to do these

different pillars. But then some of the things we have already done

are really easy and I'll start by saying don't get overwhelmed with this. You you probably are already doing some things that fit in these categories. Just attach them to this concept so that people understand there is a a comprehensive view of what is being done. So one of the first things we did fell under environmental volunteerism where we did a litter pickup and we offered employees an incentive if you know they go out and and

Karl McCollester (09:05)
Okay.

Mark Partin (09:27)
pick up litter on a certain day then then they can maybe leave early one day and so not only are we literally cleaning up litter but people are walking because we're doing it you know manually walking and down the the streets picking up things and then we're also making the environment look better and our community look better and more presentable so that's one thing we've done and then

Karl McCollester (09:31)
Mm, yeah.

hmm

Mark Partin (09:52)
Another thing we've done is just recently we did a plant distribution on Earth Day. So our greenhouse, I wish I could tell you what kind of plant it is, but I can't other than it's a pretty green plant in my office. but our our greenhouse

Karl McCollester (10:06)
Yeah.

Mark Partin (10:08)
got some plants for us to distribute to all employees that were interested. And and one thing we said was, you have to be, you have to want it and at least attempt to take care of it. So, you know, don't get it and then never water it. so we gave out, I think it was ninety-six plants ⁓ two city employees out of you know roughly six hundred employees and

Karl McCollester (10:20)
Right.

well, great.

Mark Partin (10:33)
Brock, the horticulturalist, he, you know, sent out information on this is how you take care of it. And it that really was it was an exciting event that we did and it really turned out better than we anticipated. We did ask for sign ups just so we'd know where to take the plants, how many to get and so forth. Well, we kind of guessed that we would have a hundred given out and we only had let's say forty sign up.

Karl McCollester (10:47)
Mm-hmm. Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Mark Partin (10:58)
But then as

we went out to distribute them, people saw them and said, I want one of those Or I didn't realize it wouldn't be hard to take care of or I didn't know, you know, my office that doesn't have a window. I didn't know it would grow

Karl McCollester (11:04)
that's great. Yeah.

Mark Partin (11:12)
in there and you know Brock had selected a plant that could grow with fluorescent lighting and so forth. So it went from being, you know, a third of the way as successful as we thought to nearly reaching our goal of a hundred plants. ⁓ so and and it it was really interesting to me to see the excitement around it. And it's just a simple, you know, small plant that wasn't very big and wasn't very costly.

Karl McCollester (11:26)
That's great. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Mark Partin (11:39)
the effect of people really felt like they received something important and beneficial to them. So we just did that a little over a month ago on Earth Day. Then we have also done in some in the fitness realm we've done a couple well one actually and the next one was supposed to be tomorrow and it

Karl McCollester (11:48)
Okay.

Mark Partin (11:58)
We've canceled it because of the expected thunderstorms. But we did what's called a red ball tennis mixer and out at our tennis center our pros hosted us and you know we had healthy snacks and water for people and it was they taught us how to play red ball tennis, which I had never played before. but you play it on a smaller court, similar to a pickleball size court, with and the tennis ball is actually red and it has a different compression and different paddle or

Karl McCollester (12:18)
Okay.

Mm.

Mark Partin (12:25)
racquets and we just played tennis together for a couple hours. You know, we had fellowship, we had physical activity, we were outside. So just really enjoyed the time outside, learning a new sport, being active and s and also seeing a facility that some of our people didn't know existed, you know, which is the Palmetto Tennis Center, which is a very nice you know, tennis facility in the state as well as the South East. so those are a couple, two or three things we have done

Karl McCollester (12:26)
okay.

Yes.

Mark Partin (12:52)
that are you know active getting people outside and then we once a month we send out an email newsletter with the topic of the month and some resources people can access to learn some more about nature at work and the benefit of it.

Karl McCollester (13:06)
Great. I recall this one was gonna be at the Aquatic Center. I know several other municipalities, have their own municipal pools as well. So what were you all putting together around that?

Mark Partin (13:16)
We were going to have and we'll we'll reschedule it, but we're going to have a morning the pool opens at at noon for the public. Ma maybe one. I'm getting my times mixed up. But it's it's an afternoon for the public. We were gonna let employees and their family members come out early and have

Just time to swim. Yeah, it wasn't gonna be an organized, you know, competition or anything. Just come enjoy the pool and be outside. so we will do that again, weather permitting, you know, before the swim season is over. And again, just to let people maybe have access to a facility they've never been to before and enjoy it with their family and with each other. So

Karl McCollester (13:36)
Yeah.

Right. Right.

Mm-hmm.

Great. you said the plants was what, a month or two months ago. how many months overall has has the city been doing it now?

Mark Partin (13:59)
Yeah.

the first litter pickup we did was during Thanksgiving week last year. So that was the the first organized event. and then the most recent one was as late as last Friday. The second litter pickup was done prior to Memorial Day. So we've been going a little over about seven months now. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (14:07)
Okay. Okay.

Okay. Great.

Okay.

And has the city done any, formal measurements or have you do you have any anecdotal feedback so far about how it's going?

Mark Partin (14:31)
J not formal, that is to come, but informally, just hearing the feedback we've received, the excitement that's generated around it, the joking, camaraderie that's come around it. some people want to dress funny when they go out to do the litter pickup and it's just been fun and you can just feel the spirit, a good healthy spirit around

these different opportunities that we're doing and and the question always what's next? that's what we hear, what's next? And when are we gonna do this? Or can we do this again? ⁓ so just anecdotally there's a lot of excitement and energy around it. And Jason does a really good job of spreading that enthusiasm.

Karl McCollester (15:00)
Right. That's right.

Mm-hmm.

That's great.

Great. so if you're a smaller town, don't stress over the size and and the amount of effort have you thought of some ways this could be, scaled down for small municipalities to be able to leverage?

Mark Partin (15:25)
Absolutely. And this is one thing that's coming up next month, June and July, actually. you know, every county in South Carolina has a state park. so we're partnering with Poinsette State Park here in Sumter County as part of the 250th celebration of America's independence. And we're going to go out and participate in a hike

Karl McCollester (15:33)
Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (15:48)
Poinsett State Park where they walk us through the history of the park and

connections to the Revolutionary War. So that's totally free other than, your transportation out there and it's taking advantage of a state park. So as I said, since every county has at least one state park, that's a very easy free way that you can have a program. I'm sure the park rangers would love to to host people, whether it's for a hike or, an educational opportunity.

Karl McCollester (15:55)
Nice. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mark Partin (16:18)
Congaree National Park right outside of Columbia. they have fantastic programs. so those are very easy ways to implement a program that's low cost. And then you can do other things I know all of us can do litter pickup around the state. So again, other than some trash bags and maybe some gloves, that's a very low cost way.

Karl McCollester (16:31)
Right.

Mark Partin (16:38)
Getting plants like these plants that we got were very small, we're talking just a dollar or two, or if you're good at growing them from seeds, you can grow hundreds of plants for a dollar worth of seed, so those are some some things I would suggest doing. But take advantage of the resources you have around you.

Karl McCollester (16:45)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Mark Partin (16:55)
in your community, whether it's within your municipality's organization or just around the community, partner with other organizations, whether it's school districts or businesses, Chamber of Commerce, hospitals. hospitals are interested in wellness. So ⁓ look for those opportunities. And there's always organizations that need volunteers, which is another good way to get out and get access.

Karl McCollester (17:09)
Mm.

Absolutely. going back to our discussion with Lamar,

that makes me also think of as you were saying, leverage we were talking about planting, potentially l leveraging your, the council member or the historic preservation board member or even library board member who has that green thumb and that interest, being asked to do something like that to provide plants for the,

flower beds at the city hall or or for the employees to have in their room. They might frankly be flattered to be asked that. And like you said, that's zero cost f if they're planning to provide it all. Could be pots and a a couple bags of soil or something that you give them in exchange for doing that So I love that idea of kinda combining the plantings and greening up the space a

with leveraging as you said your assets within the community and that could even just be the the right person who's already doing things with the municipality.

Mark Partin (18:10)
Yes, and

d this just came to mind. Another organization I volunteered with, they partnered with the school district and planted a garden at the school. in w some cases it was a vegetable garden, in other cases it was just a plant garden. But that's a great way too. It it helps them, have nice outside greenery at their school as well as you have the opportunity of being outside and doing something. So

Karl McCollester (18:19)
Okay.

Yeah.

Absolutely and and even along those same lines if even your smallest municipality, if you have a couple public works folks and you can work with them to you know set up a few planting beds that people can use for a community garden, you know, having that space available and then potentially working with your employees to plant some things in it or with that same volunteer. just is a great way to you know potentially green a space up that has been d neglected in the past.

Mark Partin (18:58)
That's right. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Karl McCollester (18:59)
well, Mark, I I definitely look forward to hearing further as we go along and and potentially circling back with Jason about how things continue to go on the Nature at Work program. And again, we'll include the links in the podcast notes. and this is a statewide program in South Carolina, but obviously you can take some of the interest and and some of the learnings that they present there and some of these ideas and apply it to to any state and any municipality.

Mark Partin (19:24)
Yes. So look I'm I appreciate talking about this today and look forward to following up some more in the future. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (19:32)
Awesome.

So great. So one of the things we do have a a set of grants that are coming up here due in June. starting with you know, this is for for our all of our West Coast listeners or listener, what I thought was interesting this one is a urban greening grant. so this idea is that if your town or municipality has spots that really could use additional tree coverage or things like that as a way to cool down

the urban environment. I love that idea. and so that's you know 200k to five million and that's due on June fourth.

Mark Partin (20:05)
Yes, and the next grant we have is from the C D C and it is called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act grant. And it is grants again local governments are eligible for this as well as some nonprofit organizations, but it's a grant to attack and address opioid and methant methamphetamine addiction. and the grants are up to seventy-five thousand dollars.

and you know that is certainly a need that is nationwide. So I encourage you to take a look at that if you have the agencies that are in place to address that. And that is due that or is due on June eighth, yeah.

Karl McCollester (20:38)
Yes.

Yeah,

and that's specifically for if you're you have to be a municipality

where the usage is above the national average, I think, is is what we what I saw in that requirement. next up, the Department of Transportation, and this is an interesting one, it certainly applies nationally and certainly applies to select municipalities within practically every state. And that if you are near a pipeline, the US DOT is providing a pipeline emergency response grant so that you can build out the plan and potentially any things that you might need around

that plan to be able to better respond and or alert your citizens if there's a problem with that nearby pipeline. So definitely, and that's from between 50,000 and 200,000. So it definitely if you are in that situation where a pipeline goes through or is near your municipal borders, I would definitely look that up.

Mark Partin (21:29)
Yes, and then the next grant we have is the National Park Service Historic Preservation Fund, Paul Brun Historic Revitalization Program. That's a mouthful. but it is a grant in the amounts of two hundred to five hundred thousand dollars for restoration of properties that are eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. And the the good thing about this grant for our listeners is is specifically for town.

of 5,000 people or less and then there are also some cities that are 50,000 or less in population that are not part of a metro area. Encourage you to go look at this grant and apply for it. And June 23rd is the deadline for that grant. But but this one smaller locations specifically have a heads up on this. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (22:15)
Yeah, I

think it's a very exciting opportunity because so many small municipalities that I know I work with have buildings they're either they're targeting, they would love to work on, or that they are in process of, and this could potentially be a a great help for that. and then finally, the South Carolina Parks Recreation and Tourism is having the undiscovered South Carolina grant. So this is for municipalities where if you are

Receiving less than 1.25 million in accommodations tax distribution. So I think most of our municipalities frankly are eligible for that. And it's a 50-50 grant, but it is around the idea if you have something again that is a public tourism attraction. So that could be a garden, that could be a historic building, or some sort of historic park or store historic site within your municipal limits, a 50 50% reimbursement grant up to $200K. So if

obviously you would have to either pull the funds for the rest of it from somewhere else or you know or or maybe already be in the process of where you're trying to save up for this, but this could be something that could push you over that edge where by taking a look at a historic building that is already potentially looking at with the National Park Service grant, you could then use this to leverage it to then also be a public tourism attraction, whether that's having a museum portion or some sort of exhibit, especially if it

something that is if it's already under the eligible or listed on the National Register of Historic Places, there's a good chance you could have a tourism angle to it that this grant could then help you know potentially provide the rest of it and or provide the funds to make a spot within that that could be a a tourism attraction you know whether that's we have lots of mill towns and something about mill town life and culture within the south

it could be something that's within the building that you're already planning to restore. And not that I'm thinking about anybody in particular. So but there I think opportunities like that are vast.

Mark Partin (23:59)
Yes,

Karl McCollester (24:03)
as a small municipality, you do have value and there is a history and there is something that you can supply as f from a education and tourism standpoint that is probably unique to you and you have your own unique angle on that this could help you promote.

Mark Partin (24:18)
Yeah, and and to share a personal story along that line. Last year, last summer, my wife and I took a week off and did a staycation where we, you know, we were home every night in our house, but every day we would drive out to some small community that we normally don't go to just to to to discover it. and you know, we'd see little cafes, little museums, little shops, little parks. and so I can personally say, at least in South Carolina,

Karl McCollester (24:35)
Mm.

Mark Partin (24:45)
there are several undiscovered gems in these small municipalities that I would encourage all of those places to take a look at this and see what they can do to take advantage of it. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (24:56)
Absolutely

and that's why we we love working with them. So

With that, Mark, thank you once again, as always, for joining me and a great discussion. And I think something a little bit different, maybe more proactive and beneficial than something sometimes we're we're talking more about risk of risk avoidance or or trying to keep things from keep things from getting worse or solve things that are bad. this is one of those topics today that is more about improving the health and welfare and of your team, whether that's a team.

Mark Partin (25:14)
Yeah.

Karl McCollester (25:25)
team of three to five in our smallest municipalities or team of six hundred or more like in Sumter you know there's certainly a place for this in everybody's municipality.

Mark Partin (25:36)
Yes,

and if you're listening and you're not a local government worker, regular businesses and nonprofits can do this as well. Yeah.

Karl McCollester (25:43)
Absolutely.

Absolutely. So thank you again. as always, please like and subscribe to us and we look forward to talking with you next time. Thank you, Mark. Bye.

Mark Partin (25:52)
Okay, thank you, Karl. Bye.