Gene Schmidt - Zoning Emeritus
Posts: 154 |
|
|
| Dan Magee leaves for Athens | March 17, 2010 @ 6:24am | Dan our advocate for LaVista Park improvements and now Kittredge Park, has taken the position of Supervisor of Parks for Athens-Clarke County. He will most likely commute at first, to least disrupt his family, but that will leave little time for us. I assume he will resign as chairman of the DeKalb Parks Citizen Review Board. His guidance and advise to neighborhoods and the county, in getting the most from park space will be missed.
Gene
Dan Magee, Director of Decatur, Gerogia's Active Living department, is leaving his post at the end of March to take on the role of Supervisor of Parks for Athens-Clarke County. "It's an incredible opportunity," he says.
Magee continues, "It is very, very, very difficult to leave the City of Decatur. " Magee started with the City two-and-a-half years ago.
His connection with Decatur goes back many years: his wife grew up here and took dance classes at the Rec 35 years ago. He was Director Of Recreational Services at Emory University and shared lacrosse goals with Decatur's Rec department during his time there. "I used to bring my son to Decatur city parks well before I started working here, and I used to play pickup hoops at Glenlake Park 15 years ago," he says.
"The city has an incredibly well run City Hall, and the elected officials are among the best anywhere," according to Magee. He called Assistant City Manager Lyn Menne "the most intelligent boss I ever had in my life. Everyone in City Hall here is brilliant, and Lyn was instrumental in helping with positive changes for the Active Living Division."
"And there so many city residents who graciously volunteer and coach. The staff here provides so many important programs for the city residents, especially for children and seniors. And we are finally making headway with providing more "active living" type programming. I can look back knowing we did some good things."
His list of those "good things" is long: volunteer park cleanup days, major improvements to athletic fields and other parks improvements, a new garden at McKoy Park shared with the College Heights ECLC, the start of a table tennis program, the start of a blog [231Sycamore.com].
"We just had a incredibly productive cleanup day the past Saturday at the hillside at Ebster Field with an awesome group of young Boy Scouts and some teens from the Allen Wilson homes. Many of my peer directors in the metro area don't have volunteer park cleanup days, but it's so easy to have volunteer events in a city like Decatur," he says.
According to Magee Athens-Clarke County has 3,400 acres of parks, nineteen facilities and a penny sax tax for capital improvements. They have received Georgia Recreation & Park Association Agency of the Year honors for the past five years (for cities and counties with populations 80,000 & larger).
"This is truly a dream job," Magee says, "Athens-Clarke County is run in a very similar style to Decatur, they have a ‘Greenway Network Plan,' and with 3,400 acres of parks and greenspace, it's an incredible opportunity."
Magee concludes: "There are so many plans and projects that I started and did not get to finish yet, but I have all the confidence in the world in Greg White and the rest of the staff. I honestly would not leave without knowing that Greg White is more than ready to run the show." |
|
