La Vista Parks Department gets a little machine that's a big help

LA VISTA, Neb.– La Vista Parks got a new robot that paints the fields at the La Vista Sports Complex which helps the employees work more efficiently

• Gary the Robot paints soccer, football, and baseball fields
• The robot is used at the La Vista Sports complex
• The robot cost $45,000 and helps the employees work faster

BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:

I’m Greta Goede your Sarpy County neighborhood reporter. And this is Gary, a robot that makes the LA Vista Parks Department jobs a little easier.

Gary the Robot is a painter used by the La Vista Parks Department to paint sports fields.

Although it's small, the robot makes a big impact on the amount of work that the parks department is able to do in a day.

Jobs that use to take hours and multiple employees are easy for Gary to complete on its own.

The robot can paint a full-size soccer field in 20 minutes and a baseball field in just 12.

This allows human parks employees to focus their energy on other efforts and projects.

"Its really overall just a game changer for us,” Aaron Johannsen, sports complex foreman for the city of La Vista. “Like I said before it was two or three guys and a full day of painting to get things halfway painted and somewhat straight and now it's one person with a tablet that just basically hits start once they get the paint mixed up to get him started and they can go off and do different tasks. It just opens up our freedom a little bit to kind of be a little bit more efficient with our time."

And Gary’s good work is the reason why the robot got its name.

The department didn't name the robot at random. It’s actually named after a past employee who spent a decade with the parks department.

"We named the robot Gary after an old employee who use to work down here,” Johannsen said. “Enjoyed working down here, was happy to come to work every day and that's kind of the same way we feel about Gary too, the robot. Does basically what we ask when we ask and does a great job at it so we just found it kind of fitting to name it after him."

This is Gary the Robot's first year with the parks department. The $45,0000 purchase was approved back in March, but the city plans on keeping it around to help out as long as they can

In La Vista I’m Greta Goede your Sarpy county neighborhood reporter.