A New Chapter Begins: Park Staff Updates

The City of Richmond’s Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities Department came under the leadership of Chris Frelke in 2018. One of the first tasks undertaken by the new Director was to review overall park operations. Once the review was completed, he recognized the immediate need to reorganize the Department to provide better facility management and customer service while setting the Department up to grow into the future.

The Reorganization took the department from three districts to six districts roughly divided by the River. In August of 2018, Nathan Burrell, the James River Park Superintended was offered and accepted the position of Facility Maintenance Manager for the Sothern Division overseeing The James River Park, The Southern district (Forest Hill Park and all other parks south of the River), as well as the Trails and Greenway Division which is a new division with in our Department that was formally apart of the James River Park.

On January 22nd, a new chapter begins for James River Park with the hiring of a new Parks Manager, Mr. Bryce Wilk.  Bryce comes to the City and the Park with a wealth of experience in Parks and Forestry Management through his work with New York State Parks and more recently, as the deputy Superintendent at Pocahontas State Park for the last four years.

Mike Burton, who has been the Trails Manger for the department for 6 years and has recently been serving as the acting Superintendent, has accepted the position of Trails and Greenway Superintendent.  Michael has worked at the James River Park since 2009 and has been the Trails Manager for the City of Richmond since 2013.  Before settling in Richmond, he worked as a trails contractor throughout the Southeast for over ten years.

Josh Feola, who was the Maintenance Tech III for James River Park has also accepted the Superintendent position for the Southern District. Mike Gee, who was the Maintenance Tech II for James River Park and is now the Labor Crew Chief for the Southern District.

Congratulations to the Park staff on these exciting changes!

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