The city’s first African American department director says ‘firsts’ allows kids to see that they can do it, too
Trace Stevens, the city of Henderson’s Parks and Recreation director, will work his last day for the city June 2.
Stevens has been with the city since April 2014, and in that time, he said he’s proud of several initiatives taken on by the city’s parks department.
One project Stevens took on back when he started was to move all the parks reservation forms and cemetery information online. It seems more than obvious now, 11 years later, but at the time when Stevens started much of the parks and recreation department’s reservations and information was disseminated to the public via paper.
Stevens also said that the department continued its tradition of being recognized with organizational designations, such as Tree City USA and the Playful Community award.
And the parks department has continued to offer low- to no-cost activities for the community, which has been a priority of the city for many years, Stevens said. He mentioned the free spray parks and Atkinson Park Pool’s low admission fee. He also said that the John F. Kennedy Center is free to join and all community events put on by the parks and recreation department are free.
The overall goal, Stevens said, is not for the parks department to be a revenue stream.
“The service to the citizens is more important that the dollars it brings in,” he said.
Stevens’ departure comes a bit earlier than expected. He’d originally planned for his retirement to commence in August. But he saw a job posted by the University of Evansville and applied for it and ultimately was hired. He said after his retirement from the city, he’ll only have a short time off before starting a position at UE as the assistant director of grounds, facilities and planning.
“I’m going to sit around for a week,” he said. He starts at UE on June 9.
Stevens said he’s got 27 years in the state retirement system, starting in 1996 as a sixth grade social studies teacher in Paducah, where he’s from. After one year teaching, he moved into the city of Paducah’s parks system and worked for about 12 years.
After a year in Deerfield Beach, Fla., where he worked as a parks maintenance superintendent, Stevens returned to Kentucky to help take care of family members. There, he worked for a year in a technology position at a Paducah elementary school before coming to Henderson.
After 11 years in Henderson, Stevens said this is where he’ll stay.
“Now Henderson’s a place I call home,” he said.
He and wife, Cindy, and two sons, Seth and Samuel, all live in Henderson.
The city is in the process of hiring Stevens’ successor, and when it does, Stevens said he’ll still be available to answer questions that may arise.
Additionally, the city is currently in the midst of creating a parks and recreation master plan, which will act as an aid in determining upcoming projects for the department. Although the city has hired outside firm Brandstetter Carroll to gather information from residents and an assembled group and then compile a plan, Stevens said one city amenity will definitely need to be assessed soon—Atkinson Park Pool.
“There definitely needs to be … discussion about what comes next,” he said, adding it could end up being a new pool or some other water feature.
He said it’s a project the master plan will most likely provide a clear direction on.
Stevens said another possible future project might revolve around E-sports, or video games. It’s not an option always popular with many parks and outdoor enthusiasts, but he said many cities are starting to provide this form of recreation, with some larger municipalities going so far as building E-sports arenas.Locally, the department could provide dedicated spaces for E-sports, he said.
“A lot of the way people recreate these days is by playing video games,” Stevens said.
Another of Stevens’ points of pride was setting up a replacement schedule for all the city parks’ playgrounds. Community Park’s playground was replaced this year. Playgrounds will continue to be replaced in the coming years, he said.
On a final note, Stevens is the first African American to lead a city department, though when asked about it, he said he wasn’t sure if that was the case.
“It’s not something I set out for,” he said, but added, “I’m excited I was able to do it.”
He said he’s a fan of firsts of all kinds—the first woman, the first African American, etc. It’s important, he said, because these firsts set an example for the younger generation, allowing kids to see what’s possible and “lets them know they can do it.”
