Mayor Dave Cieslewicz launched Wednesday an initiative to utilize sustainable and environmentally friendly practices in attempts to improve downtown Madison areas.

The objective of the “Mowtown” plan is to keep city parks, medians, boulevards and various other sections of the city well-manicured as the spring season progresses.

“Mowtown is part of our ongoing effort to provide excellent basic city services,” Cieslewicz said in a statement. “We want to have a community that looks beautiful and well cared-for, just as we take care of our own homes and businesses. We also want to have a community that makes a great first impression on visitors, and few things are more visible than the grass in our parks, medians and boulevards.”

According to Jim Weinstock, parks operations manager, the program hired an additional 15 to 20 seasonal workers earlier this spring to begin mowing operations to tackle the issue head-on.

Cieslewicz said they hope to get a jump-start on the yearly challenges of maintenance.

“Every year we know there are certain challenges we face — potholes obviously, and traditionally we do get some concerns about grass mowing in the spring,” Cieslewicz said. “What tends to happen is grass starts growing very quickly, and we are caught off-guard. This year we want to get ahead.”

The program also included the purchase of four $77,000 mowers to increase efficiency while cutting grass in large areas. With over 871 medians, 270 parks constituting 5,400 acres of parkland and other areas throughout the city, maintaining an efficient system is foremost, Cieslewicz added.

“These [mowers] can cut a wider gap,” Cieslewicz spokesperson George Twigg said. “Older ones could not cut as much grass in a single pass, so that helps.”

Concerning the issue of rising gas prices this summer, Cieslewicz said the efficiency of the mowers would reduce excessive use of gas.

Additional features of the plan include allocating $50,000 of native plantings in medians, which would establish a more sustainable environment in the long-run and the installation of GPS technology on mowing equipment to stem inefficient usage.

Cieslewicz said the investment in native plants costs more money short-term, but the addition would eventually lead to less maintenance, a greater ability to absorb water and rain, alongside a better capability to adjust to drought conditions.

“Where we are going to grow grass, we are going keep that looking sharp,” Cieslewicz said. “Where we have ‘low mow’ and ‘no mow’ areas of nature plants we will nurture those. Over time what we want is to expand native planting because that will be more efficient.”