MOSES LAKE — In 1977, Rolando Gonzales applied for a part-time position with the Moses Lake Parks and Recreation Department. He was just 19 years old when he was hired by then-parks supervisor Wayne Hawkins.

At first, it was seasonal work, starting at four in the morning and ending eight at night, maintaining the fields where he played baseball, which he juggled with a weekend side job doing work for the men’s softball league. Some weeks he’d work up to 70 hours.

“Back then we didn’t have a whole lot of money,” Gonzales said. “The city was growing, and we were asked to do a whole lot of work without a lot of expenditures.”

It wouldn’t take long for others to notice that hard work and offer him a full-time job, and eventually a supervisory role, leading up to his final position as Parks Superintendent. Now, over 42 years later, Gonzales’ long days on the job have reached their end, with his retirement Friday, March 13.

It’s been a long and impactful run. Gonzales has seen the city’s park acreage almost double over the last four decades, and the facilities on that acreage continue to improve. In his personnel file, which was placed on display at a Thursday retirement party, postcards, letters, and notes expressed gratitude Gonzales and his team for the work they did improving life in Moses Lake.

“I had somebody that asked me what parks he had an impact on,” mused Parks and Recreation Director Spencer Grigg at Tuesday’s meeting of the city council. “And I said, all of them.”

Visitors to Moses Lake’s Japanese Peace Garden, which was built based on Gonzales’ design, have to travel through a red torii gate, an icon of Japanese Shinto traditions that marks the border between the secular and the sacred. Located in the middle of the small but growing town, past that gate is a tranquil place with a river stone lined koi pond, waterfalls, Japanese lanterns, and bamboo tea hut.

Gonzales had a hand in the development of the Paul Lauzier Memorial Athletic Park ahead of the town’s hosting of the Babe Ruth World Series in 2000, as well as the entrance to the popular Kvamme Soccer Complex at Cascade Park.

“The biggest thing is just the community and having a safe facility where kids can go to play, or families can go picnic, or go swim at the water park, and they can just know that it is safe and there is a quality of life to Moses Lake,” Gonzales said.

Indeed, the list of projects Gonzales played a role in is too long to enumerate, and when asked what he was most proud of, he says he’s proud of them all.

But one project does hold a special place in his heart: Ashley’s Playground, a handicap-accessible playground at McCosh Park.

In 2005, Moses Lake mom Christi Dieringer came to Gonzales to talk about her daughter, Ashley, who was 3 years old at the time. Ashley, who used a walker, couldn’t play with her sister on the playground because she wasn’t able to maneuver through wood chips or sand. No playgrounds in town worked for the family.

“And she says, I want my daughter to be able to play with her sister on a playground,” Gonzales recalls. “When you think about a kid with special needs, it touches all our hearts. I saw this beautiful little girl who had limitations, and the thought was to have something there where she could play with her sibling.”

Councilwoman Karen Liebrecht, who was until recently the mayor of Moses Lake, spoke at the tail end of Tuesday’s council meeting, recalling Gonzales’ proposal during her time with the city Parks and Recreation Department.

“He came and discussed (Ashley’s Playground) with us, and I was so moved and so touched, because he did it through tears,” Liebrecht said. “He was so involved and so passionate that he had difficulty controlling his emotions. And that moved me more than I can say, that a city employee cared that deeply about this community.”

Now a senior in high school, Ashley was in attendance Thursday to thank Gonzales for his work and help send him off.

As he heads into retirement, Gonzales doesn’t expect to sit still: there’s a tiki bar he and his wife want to build, and he’s been meaning to convert their barn into a man-cave. He’d also like to spend more time with his family, both in the area and outside of the state.

But he won’t be forgetting anytime soon about the folks he’s leaving behind.

“The people here are like family. I worked with every department here, whether it’s police, fire, community development, engineering, the public works, and of course I’ve known all those people over time,” Gonzales said, choking up a bit before catching himself.

“So what I’m going to miss most is just the people. I think it’s time for me to head off, but I’m still going to miss the people.”

Emry Dinman can be reached via email at edinman@columbiabasinherald.com.