For the City-Times

The Portage County Parks Department recently completed a staff reorganization of its full-time employees that started a year ago. 

“Due to retirements and a resignation, the opportunity arose to reorganize positions and change job descriptions in order to continue to improve efficiency and be more effective in the services provided,” said Gary Speckmann, parks director.  The reorganization affected 50 percent of the full time staff positions where employees either changed jobs or new employees were hired.

“A change was needed because it had been a long time since that had happened and the parks department’s responsibilities and duties have increased significantly over the past 15 years and the staff has been reduced” added Speckmann.

Old positions were eliminated and new ones created such as assistant parks director, trails coordinator and parks maintenance specialist.  More employees in the department now work weekends when the parks are busiest and a position is now directly responsible for trails, which have become a major role of the department over the years with the Green Circle Trail and Tomorrow River Trail, as well as snowmobile, cross- country skiing, mountain bike and snowshoe trails at Standing Rocks Park.

“Scheduling and job duties are more flexible and we can respond to the park users needs faster,” Speckmann said. “Some of the changes started last summer and I couldn’t be happier so far with the results.”