Josephine County Recreation Director Tamra Martin said it was her pleasure to attend the July 19 county commission weekly business session, where she joined the commissioners in recognizing the hard work of park employees involved with the renovation of Tom Pearce Park east of Grants Pass.
“Seeing a project from the beginning and going all the way through to the very end in completion is sometimes an oddity and a rarity in the positions that we’re
in,” Martin said. “But I wanted to take a minute because the community has responded in such a very positive way towards this park and this project, but really, truly none of this would have been even remotely possible if it wasn’t for this team that you see sitting before you right now with our park rangers.”
Martin went on, “They worked through rain and freezing cold weather, they cleared land, they redid the bathrooms, they brought in water fountains, they have worked tirelessly for our community on this project to get it to a space where all of these kids are out there and enjoying it and when you have a team that’s as good as this group of people right here, sometimes it’s easy to forget to tell them how amazing that they truly are and we forget to tell them anything unless they’re like, ‘Oh, someone’s complaining about something,’ and so I really wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate them and reward them for everything that they have done over the last year.”
Plaques were made for each employee who worked on the Tom Pearce Park renovation, and they were called up individually to receive them from an enthusiastic Board Chair Herman Baertschiger.
“You know, we get so caught up with the day-to-day business and everything I think we forget that the most valuable resource in Josephine County are people that serve,” Baertschiger remarked. “It needs to be underscored because without the folks that continue on with their dedication to public service and to the citizens of Josephine County, we wouldn’t have much of a county. So l really appreciate you, Tamara, bringing this forward.”
The employees honored with plaques at the meeting are as follows: Sean Clark; James Fimbres; Jake Scallon; Steve Harvey; Ryan Hendon; Tony Rodriguez; Cole Nichols; and Josh Sabota.
Recreation Director Martin gave a special thanks to Sobota, who serves as the county’s parks operations manager.
“I got to tell you – our county parks right now are gorgeous,” said Martin. “And it really takes a lot of foresight and the ability to determine kind of what the next season holds and Josh has done it in a way that really, he kind of sees everything coming as it’s happening and his leadership with his team has been pretty phenomenal and I feel pretty fortunate that I’ve had the opportunity to come in and work with Josh and quite honestly we have an office staff as well that is just top notch all the way around and I could sit here and thank everybody all day but, Josh, just thank you for your leadership that you’ve shown and again just a round of applause for all of these rangers who truly work tirelessly every day in the heat, in the snow, in the rain – sometimes all on the same day.”
The recent renovations and brand new playground grand opening were well-received by the community. If you would like to check them out for yourself, visit Tom Pearce Park at 3700 Pearce Park Rd just outside Grants Pass city limits.