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Show A-1 5 c on riaiion for kids in the Basin THE PARK RZCOrj) www.psHc reconlxom WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1 5, 2SC0 gms m Years of community service in Park City gives Bonnie Park a foundation for current position by "Itai We a lb y OF THE RECORD STAFF . Sit through a single regular board meeting meet-ing of the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District, and it quickly becomes apparent that Bonnie Park is the hub which recreation programs and projects in the Basin revolve around. Unlike most government meetings, which, except for the occasional one-liner, can be about as exciting as watching water drain from a bathtub, the recreation district dis-trict meetings are actually fun. The board talks about fun things and tries to have a good time doing k while not getting mired in the complexities of the public process. Park, who is the district administrator adminis-trator and is naturally quick with a laugh, never hesitates to share in the fun, but she keeps the all-volunteer board focused. A second thing that becomes obvious obvi-ous sitting is Park love for her job. She brings boundless enthusiasm to the nighttime meetings. And seems to relish rel-ish the fact that in order to do her job. she has to pull from a wide array of knowledge. 1 "This job is never boring." she says jbeforc launching into a list of aO the things hes had to learn. The partial list includes XJtah code, county planning, traffic engj-'.neering, engj-'.neering, politics, municipal bonds, and the ; workings of a refrigeration system for a possible ice facility at Trailside. i "I've learned more on this job than any Mother job I've ever had," she says. "There are all kinds of information to be had when "you commit yourself to a job like this." Balancing all the different duties can be one of the hardest parts of her job that and all the night meetings. ' "I'm happy when there is just one a week. That a good week." Park started with the recreation district four years ago, when it was still a fledgling government entity trying to get off the ground. At the time. Park was the only employee. employ-ee. She worked out of her laundry room on a half-urne contract basis. But it was a job she wanted for a simple reason. "At the time I was home with a 3 and 6-year-old," says Park. "I w as the mother who couldn't quite understand why there was so much building goutg on an the anydenitle J , Copyj Basin and no more parks and playgrounds being built" In 1998, the Summit County Cornmission passed an ordinance allowing the district to level impact fees on new developments. As a result, Park says she had to greet everyone who pulled a residential resi-dential building permit in Snyderville Basin into her living room - and, she adds, that she has worn carpet to show for it. Now, Park shares an office with four other employees at Trailside Park. Each person focuses on developing various recreation recre-ation opportunities in the Basin. Park was the mother who couldn't quite understand why there was so much building going on in the Snyderville Basin and no more parks and playgrounds being built - Donnia Perk Racresticn district edatinistretor oversees it all. And the woman who says she never intend to work fall-time is now clocking 40-plus hours every week. "And in a lot ways you never really leave your job because you think a lot about it," she adds. That part of processing. process-ing. Thinking about things you hear at meetings." When asked if she ever imagined herself doing a job like this, she shakes her head, laughs and says, "No. My emphasis in school was actually commercial recreation." The story of how this mother of two got to be the Snyderville Basin point person on recreation starts in the mid-1970s when she began studying communication at Skidmore College in New York. In 1975, she moved to Sah Lake Gty and transferred her studies to the University of Utah, when asked why she moved West She pauses before saying. "I want to be careful bow I say this. But I dni-nt dni-nt really have an eastern personality," she savs slowly. "I just felt more comfortable in the West" While still an undergraduate, she started taking graduate courses in recreation and - went on to complete a master degree m II li commercial recreation and a minor in marketing. mar-keting. Park admits to putting herself on the fast track to get through college. "I always maintain that instead of having to pay to work you work and get paid." Four yean later and with a master degree in hand, she moved to Park Gty. "I love the West And having lived in Salt Lake City, I had a lot of fun times in PC I just decided that if I were going to stay in Utah that Park City was where I wanted to live. It an incredible place." She started working for the Park Gty Chamber of Commerce as an intern. Over the next three years, she eventually promoted pro-moted to communication director From there, she went on to become the recreation director at the Park Meadows Country Qub. A job she held for the next six years. Along the way. Park became very active in the community, including serving on a couple of boards herself. her-self. There was the Park Gty Recreation Board, the Art Festival Board, and Co-op Preschool Board, not to mention a fair dose of special event committees sprinkled about like the Fourth of July parade and the Park Gty Ride and Tie Race Committee. m Such experiences, she says, not only provided great background for her current position, but also gave her deep understanding and appreciation of the recreation district time commitments and responsibilities. "I have a great board I work for. They put in a tot of hours." With an emphasis in commercial recreation recre-ation she says her job at Park Meadows was much more "up my aDey." But she also acknowledges that the line between commercial and public reaction is a blurry one. "My motivation for being in recreation is that I enjoy seeing people have a good time. So whether you're in commercial recreation or public parks and rec the rewards are similar." Along the w ay, she met her husband, Pete, who proposed to her while the couple cou-ple rode out hurricane Isaac on a sail boat near the South Pacific island of Tonga in 1981 "The eye went right over our boat and we ended up going aground. But in the middle of the hurricane Pete proposed to me. It one of those lifetime stories." A few months later, the couple married T""laokl Commnairv Church on Park , M4vcnue. -The couple o has two boys. t . ). t " n t I 'RTrfS ra. r C U TtON f ' T 1 : i rj : , ROGER GLAZta MW PEQQRD Bonnie Park has been the Snyderville Basin Special Recreation District's administrator since 1936. She once worked out of her laundry room, but now has an office at the district's pride and joy Trailside Park Brian, 7, and Marshall. 10. And how does the Basin point person on recreation spend her free tune and get ber exercise? "I'm a runner." Park says she gets up at 6 a.m. to run. While she runs with a partner, she calls those 45 minutes every morning time for herself. As for the future. Park has ber sights firmly on how to expand the Basin recreational opportunities. While the district dis-trict first priority is youth, she says that providing recreation for older kids and adults is a growing priority. As an example, exam-ple, she points to the district plans for an ice and roller hockey facility at Trailside Park. "We have 30-somethings say, "yeah this b great, and they're thinking about themselves as much as they are about the youths." Park says the same motivation that sparked ber interest in the job in the first place - namely providing more playgrounds play-grounds for the Basin children - keeps - ber focused on what this same group will -jveed in five years. unii,. ))IJ lirnuoxoMiii The district frequently bears that there needs to be more recreational opportunities opportuni-ties for the area older youth, she says. When she done with ber job. Park wants to look back and be proud of the recreation facilities the district brought to the community. commu-nity. She says she will also continue to focus on the results of an extensive needs assessment assess-ment survey a California research company recently completed for the district The district generally got high marks and strong support from the community for the jobs its doing. But not all is completely rosy, says Park. "You have a level of dissatisfaction because it tough to provide as much as (the public) pub-lic) wants." So the district wiS continue to focus on what it has done in the past building more playgrounds and recreation facilities. But in an area seeing explosive growth and skyrocketing sky-rocketing land prices, that no easy task. Land acquisition is something she thinks about every single day. . , "It makes me sort of sad that we were - so tar behind an getting started |