Back on March 22, an era ended for the City of Bridgeport as long-time Parks and Recreation Director Don Burton officially headed into the world of retirement after nearly 30 years on the job. The vacancy left by his departure didn’t last too long.

 

The city promoted long-time P&R Deputy Director Joe Shuttleworth into the director’s position. Shuttleworth, like Burton, is a veteran of the department having more than 23 years of service to the Bridgeport community and took over the next day following Burton’s departure.

 

What hasn’t happened since Burton left and Shuttleworth became the head of the highly popular Parks department is the filling of Shuttleworth’s position. With summer activities gearing up, the pool soon to open and planning in full throttle for the multi-million dollar indoor recreation complex, City Manager Kim Haws said staff is about to be added to help buffer the staff moves.

 

“I received a recommendation from the Parks Department that rather than a deputy parks director that we create a position of superintendent over operations and director of promotions, which are two positions,” said Haws. “It’s not going to cost any more money to the city, but it helps level out and define areas for mid-management to operate and it gives Joe some breathing room in terms of day to day operations.”

 

Haws said the process is already under way. And he said he hopes to have it completed sooner than later. Part of the need for additional staff also involves the future opening – and planning – for the city’s indoor recreation complex.

 

“We need to definitely do this before summer hit. It’s also really imperative to look ahead and how these hires we make will fit together in terms of the new complex,” said Haws. “We felt like this structure will help us move forward properly in that direction and solidify the process in which the parks handles operations.”

 

As of now, one of the positions will most likely be an internal promotion, Shuttleworth said. The other position will likely be advertised. The internal promotion will have the superintendent tag, Haws said.

 

“The internal hire will bring a lot of experience to the position they will hopefully be in,” said Shuttleworth. “The other one is a future position that, in the grand scheme of things, will be utilized to make our department more effective.

 

“It’s tough to hire someone to replace my position because of the years involved because it will have a significant learning curve,” he continued. “I see it as an opportunity to grow into that position and with the new complex coming there will be ample opportunities for that to happen.”

 

Haws said program management issues, developing programs, some facility operations will be handled by the new hires.

 

“I took sort of the operations that I ran in my previous position and I’m going splitting that between the promotion we’ll be making in the department and the new position,” said Shuttleworth.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Joe Shuttleworth, right, meeting with City Manager Kim Haws earlier this week.Bottom picture shows Shuttleworth checking over some of the city's park facilities.