Brian Hall was named director of the Petal Parks and Recreation Department during Tuesday night’s Mayor and Board of Aldermen meeting. Hall has been serving as associate director since May 2017 and replaces Tom Hardges Jr., who will officially retire Aug. 28.
The job carries a salary of $47,215.
Only one dissenting vote was cast by Ward 3 Alderman Clint Moore. Moore said he could not vote for a city position that had not been advertised.
“Here we are again appointing a department head with no advertising or interviewing for the position,” said Moore. “And that’s partly on me after the last couple of weeks. I haven’t sat down and made sure we had the official procedure in place for that. But again, as we have not done that, I will vote no.
“This was all in place when I was hired,” Hall said.
In the past 14 months, Hall has had the opportunity to get his feet wet in the job, dealing with the fun stuff like ball tournaments and field projects, but at the same having to weather the storms like vandalism to Parks and Rec property.
The vandalism at the skate park and with bathroom facilities across the city are just two examples.
Hall said in an earlier post on the department’s Facebook page that it was his “goal was to keep every park looking good and functioning properly along with making improvements to enhance our parks. This becomes impossible when a majority of each day is spent repairing foolishness.”
But after attending a tournament with his own team in Arkansas this past weekend, Hall quickly learned that the Petal Parks and Recreation Department isn’t the only such department dealing with such problems.
Hall, who has coached ball for a long time, said if he was going to be at the ballpark anyway, he might as well be seeing to things.
Hall has a list of bigger projects he’d like to see the department handle in the future.
“I’ve submitted a list of projects for this year’s budget and am just waiting back to see what we get,” he said.
In addition to the city’s sports facilities, the department also oversees the Senior/Veterans Center and the Civic Center.
This past weekend Petal hosted the 9 through 11 Southwest Regional ball tournament. The city hosted 23 teams and about 1,300 people. He credits members of the department for running the tournament in his absence.
“I was there for Friday night, but had to get up at 5 a.m. Saturday to get to Arkansas,” he said.
Hall is not a native of Petal, but was brought to the area, along with his brother, with the military from Maine.
Hall is excited to continue ongoing work with the department, as well as implementing new projects as funds become available.
The board also recognized Hardges with a framed proclamation for his 20 years of service to the Petal community.
“He’s had a distinguished carry, and we’re sorry
to see him go, but happy that he is going to be able to enjoy retirement and still be active helping veterans in our area and other things he’d like to do,” said Mayor Hal Marx. “We just want to show Tom how much we appreciate him.”
The proclamation mentioned how Petal’s facilities have been greatly improved and expanded under his leadership and direction. Some of the projects Hardges was credited for include the
playgrounds at Friendly and Hinton parks, ballfields and press box at the Russell Complex, skatepark, and the redesign of the Optimist ballfields for girls softball, just to name a few.
Marx noted that the city was also named a Sports Illustrated Sportstown USA in 2004.
A plaque, presented by the department, will be attached to a bench and known as Tom Hardges Jr. Overlook Point.
“It’s a spot that is special to Tom where he can go out and look at the fields,” said Marx.
Hardges thanked God, mayor/aldermen for having confidence in me and the citizens as a whole.
“The city of petal has been great for my family,” he said. “I couldn’t have found a better retirement job.”
He also thanked his family and fine staff he’s worked with, noting that any chance he had to get up in front of a group, he was going to brag on his. “And I will continue to do so. I felt I’ve always had best staff in state of Mississippi.”
Hardges singled out one person, Josh Young, who started working with Hardges through a school co-op program when he was just 18 years old.
“He’s been my left hand, my right hand, my front and my back,” said Hardges. “It couldn’t have been done without Josh. I’m going to miss being around you, but everything is going to be alright.”
He also mentioned department heads. “No matter what time of day or night, you were there for me;” the guys at the senior center and civic center and the special group of ladies at City Hall who always had a smile for him.
Nadine Coleman with Petal’s Excel by 5 program, thanked the board for the city’s role .
