Madison County has a new director of parks and recreation.
Matthew Martin was officially hired as the new director in September when the Conservation Board made him an offer that he accepted.
“We had nine applicants for the job including four local people, but Matthew proved to be the best candidate for the job,” said Milt Canovan, the chairman of the Madison County Conservation Board. “None of the local applicants met the minimum requirements for the job, so we couldn’t talk to any of them about it.”
Martin’s resume includes positions he’s served in around the geographic footprint of West Tennessee, mostly in Kentucky. But he had a stop in Fort Smith Arkansas as the parks administrator for Sebastian County, and Clarksville and Nashville in Middle Tennessee, where he was a consultant in Nashville and the Montgomery County Parks Director in Clarksville in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Martin was actually a finalist for the job in 2020 when his predecessor, Chris Guerin, was hired.
Guerin abruptly resigned from the position in June.
Parks administrator Tony Ragland served as the interim director while the Conservation Board did a national search for the new director.
“We had the position posted for eight weeks, and then we started working on narrowing down the applicants in August,” Canovan said. “And I really do think Matthew is a good one to take the reins of the department.
“He came in and talked about definite plans he would have for the parks, and he’s ready to get involved in the work himself, which is needed with the small staff we have here in Madison County.”
Martin is set to start working in Madison County later this month.
Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news
