Parks and Recreation now a separate county department

County commissioners have decided to make Parks and Recreation a separate county department answerable directly to the county commission.

Since its creation, Parks and rec has fallen under the Solid waste department with the Solid waste Director overseeing activities like planning tournaments and keeping local parks clean and mowed.

On Tuesday the board voted to separate the two with Nikki Millender heading the Parks and recreation department and overseeing its four employees.

Miss Millender will get a 2500 dollar annual pay increase to oversee the department.

The board was split 3 to 2 on the decision; commissioners Noah Lockley and Smokey Parrish voted against the move.

Commissioner Cheryl Sanders said she feels Parks and Rec has grown to the point where it needs to be a separate department – she said we don’t have a 50 thousand dollar budget for parks and rec anymore we have a more than four hundred thousand dollar budget and that department needs to be separated and answer to the board directly.

Solid Waste will still oversee animal control.

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