Bryant: the man in charge – Will be city”s first manager of community center
Published 4:39 pm Monday, November 24, 2008
By Ruth Longoria
With only a few months to go before the Dec. 10 grand opening of the new Community Center at Mercer View, the city’s Parks and Recreation Department has named the center’s first-ever manager, Charlie Bryant of Mukilteo.
Two other staff members also have been added or moved up in the department, including Diane Mortenson, who was promoted from the Island’s recreation coordinator to community center coordinator, and Curt Brees, the new parks operations supervisor, who previously managed the city of SeaTac’s Parks Operations Division.
Bryant, 42, is the former recreation supervisor for customer services at Lynnwood Parks and Cultural Services Department, and previously worked for Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air as a customer services manager.
“I enjoyed the corporate environment, but I missed giving back to the community,” Bryant said.
Prior to his airline career, Bryant was a child life specialist for a hospital in Fresno, Calif., where he worked to maintain the psychological well-being of kids diagnosed with cancer. He left that position because of the emotional difficulties associated with losing patients.
“It’s hard, you get really close to the kids,” he said. “That was a good job, but I needed something not so heart-wrenching.”
At the community center, Bryant will oversee management of the new 43,000 square feet facility. He will develop policies and procedures, hire and train new staff, coordinate short and long term rental agreements, and develop new and existing programs.
“I’m really excited about the community center,” Bryant said. “Everything is new and this is an opportunity to not have to follow in someone else’s footsteps.” He’s looking forward to evaluating and re-introducing old community programs, as well as (in the future) finding programs that are successful in other communities that can be beneficial to Islanders. “We’ll probably take a year, looking at existing programs and ones offered in other cities, before we start anything new,” he said.
Bryant was born in Detroit, Mich., and moved as a youth with his family to Pleasanton, Calif., where he graduated in 1982 from Foothill High School. In 1987, he earned a bachelor’s degree in recreational leadership from California State University in Fresno. Bryant brings to the Island a knowledge of recreational and youth programming, as well as skills in business and working with people.
Bryant has been married to wife, Heather, for 10 years and the couple has three children, Alexander, 8, Sophie, 4, and Gemma, 2. Bryant said the commute from Mukilteo to the Island isn’t a problem, as his wife works in Factoria and the younger children attend daycare there, so now the family can carpool. A bit of a kid himself, Bryant said, he enjoys indoor and outdoor activities, such as golf, camping, swimming, racquetball, and collecting, setting up and playing with 0 gage model trains, such as the old Lionel toy train and rail sets. “I told my family when we moved into our house that one of the most important things was that there was a room for daddy’s trains,” he said.
Island Parks and Recreation Director Pete Mayer said he’s excited about the new staff members, who each bring skills and enthusiasm to their position.
Mortenson’s ability to coordinate people and events is an asset to planning for the grand opening as well as future activities and programs at the center. Through her new position, she has taken on increased responsibility in areas such as coordination of staff, setup and take down of events, marketing and working with the community, Mayer said. She also will be in charge of coordinating the art gallery at the center, which is expected to be an improvement over the gallery at the old center. The previous gallery had about six shows a year and was coordinated through the Arts Council, which will continue to work with Mortenson. As part of the center opening, Mortenson will coordinate a gallery showing of lithographs from the Island’s sister city, Thonon Les Bains, France.
At a time when Parks and Recreation Director Mayer is deluged with increased activity associated with opening the center, as well as his regular city-wide responsibilities, he’s pleased to have the assistance of the department’s new operations manager, Curt Brees. “Curt is my right arm in administering the department,” Mayer said.
Brees replaces former manager, Mike Elde, who left the Island to perform the same function for the city of Mount Vernon.
Brees brings a background of recreational leadership, as well as park operations management for several Puget Sound cities. He will now oversee Island parks’ maintenance, crews, facilities and coordinate scheduling of ballfields, picnic areas and special programs. He also is involved in the Luther Burbank Master Planning process. “Curt is the go-to guy, he does a lot of everything. He’s very sharp and has an incredible capacity to handle a multitude of tasks simultaneously, ” Mayer said.
Recruiting for the position of community center manager was a challenge, Mayer said. Although, he didn’t hear of a lot of angst within the community and City Council about hiring someone to manage the center, and the budget for the position was quickly approved, Mayer said he felt it was imperative that whoever was hired be able to handle all the needs of the 43,000-square-foot structure with its myriad functions within the community.
“With a facility this size and scope, you need someone to manage it full-time and be able to handle the business aspect, community service aspect and all of the recreational needs. Our challenge was to find the right person,” Mayer said. “And I think we have met that challenge in Charlie.”
