Outdoor Concepts

About Outdoor Concepts

The ballfields at Walker Johnston Park go quiet in December, backstops rimed with frost and the parking lot beside them empty until a plow has been through. Outdoor Concepts treats the neighborhoods around Urbandale's parks the same way it treats the open lots, methodically, corner by corner, clearing driveways along the streets that back up to Colby Park and the walking paths threading between them. Iowa winters here tend to arrive in bursts: a clear cold snap, then a fast band of snow off a passing front, then clear again, and each burst means another round of driveways and sidewalks to open before ice bonds to the pavement underneath. The crew keeps ahead of that cycle, scraping lots to bare asphalt and laying salt while the snow is still soft enough to move easily. By the second freeze of the night, the walks around the park are already dry underfoot.