{"id":30866,"date":"2025-11-21T13:14:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=30866"},"modified":"2025-11-21T13:14:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T18:14:50","slug":"decatur-to-hire-director-of-parks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/21\/decatur-to-hire-director-of-parks\/","title":{"rendered":"Decatur to hire director of parks"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParks are very important to me and I feel they’ve been neglected the last few years,\u201d Decatur Mayor Dan Rickord said in talking about a major change in city government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things that need to be cleaned up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was recently announced that the city is looking to hire a full-time parks director to oversee the ever-growing parks system in Decatur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe fact is, Jeremy just had too many hats,\u201d Rickord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was referring to Jeremy Gilbert, who recently resigned to take a job with Brooks Construction of Fort Wayne. As city operations manager, Gilbert oversaw several departments, including the parks and recreation department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things going on and we need someone to provide day-to-day management,\u201d Rickord said. \u201cDan Friedt (parks maintenance director) and Melissa Bowers (leisure services) are both doing a good job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we just need someone to oversee it all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor pointed to the growth in Decatur’s parks system, including the recently upgraded disc golf course on the north end of Parkview Drive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had previous remarked that the upgrade of that area has brought about a large increase in the number of people using the disc golf course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ryan Lehrman will continue as the city’s manager of the REV Sports Complex, a post he was hired for in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are things that need to be done,\u201d Rickord explained. \u201cIt’s not Ryan’s fault, but the concession stands are a mess and we going to do something about that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TAKING APPS: The city is taking applications for the new position, with a deadline of 4:30 p.m. on Dec. 5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the job requirements are 3\u20135 years of park operations, grounds maintenance, or related supervisory experience; knowledge of landscaping, horticulture, turf management, and facility maintenance; and experience with equipment such as mowers, tractors, and utility vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A position summary says: \u201cThe Parks Superintendent is responsible for planning, developing, scheduling, and supervising the maintenance and operation of all municipal parks, recreational facilities, grounds, trails, and related equipment. This position oversees parks staff, manages budgets, ensures public safety and facility quality, and supports long-range planning to enhance community recreational amenities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visit www.cityofdecatur.in.gov<\/a> to see the full job description and application process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com \u201cParks are very important to me and I feel they’ve been neglected the last<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30867,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-30866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Parks-playground.jpg?fit=1023%2C767&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30868,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30866\/revisions\/30868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}