Gilmer County commissioners reshaped the Gilmer County Parks and Recreation department, adding a new director and creating an advisory board.
Following a closed session at the end of the board’s regular meeting May 11, commissioners voted to hire Jody Cantrell as director of the parks and recreation department.
Previously, Cantrell was the manager of parks and recreation under Kevan White. He will receive an increase to $60,000 yearly for directing the department.
As part of the changes, commissioners rescinded a previous vote to hire Mike Brumby to run the parks and recreation department and rescinded a vote to combine the golf course and the parks and recreation department.
Commissioners agreed to move forward with creating a master plan for the department.
During the work sesssion May 10, there was discussion of hiring a grant writer to pursue funds and grants to build a sports complex.
Gilmer County Chair Charlie Paris was presenting an idea to hire Matt Ralston, son of former Speaker David Ralston, to act as the grant writer for the county. At the regular meeting, Paris backed away from this suggestion.
Commissioners unanimously apporved the creation of a parks and recreation advisory board for Gilmer County. Each commissioner will choose three members of the board. The appointments will be staggered at one, two and three years at first. Thereafter, appointments will be made for three years.
At the work session, Paris offered an apology to the previous parks and recreation board which was dissolved.
“I was working with bad data,” he said. The previous board “did a remarkable job.”
Paris said the board, which was created previous to him taking office, would still have been disbanded due to certain powers given to the board during its creation which were beyond the scope of an advisory board.