Avon charter amendment addresses parks department

Changes to the city of Avon’s Parks and Recreation Department will go before voters Nov. 6.

A charter amendment set to appear on the ballot would eliminate the position of director of parks, codifying changes made to the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation made in early 2018.

In January, Mayor Bryan Jensen assigned duties previously assigned to the parks director to the city’s recreation coordinator with the remainder to be handled by the city’s service director.

On Oct. 15, Jensen said the proposed amendment would reflect the changing needs of the city within the charter.

Traditionally, the parks director handled maintenance of the city’s parks in addition to recreation services.

“It’s just very difficult for one person to control everything,” Jensen said. “And what we did was kind of switch to specializing in each one.”

In recognizing the departmental reorganization has worked well for the city in the first six months of 2018, the city desires to remove the parks director position from the charter, reassigning the tasks to a soon to be created parks superintendent position, he said.

The change would follow a 2017 charter amendment approved by voters which eliminated the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.