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63 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, March 13, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 7, 2005 Central Point�s new parks and recreation director, Katherine Boxer, takes over a department whose offerings have grown exponentially in the last four years. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Central Point parks director plans for expansion By BUFFY POLLOCK for the Mail Tribune CENTRAL POINT — With a solid recreation program to build on, the city’s newly hired parks and recreation director is eager to keep recreation programs on a steady track while expanding on parks planning and development of the city’s open space and the Bear Creek Greenway. Katherine Boxer, former assistant director of the Fresno Parks and Recreation Department in California, was hired by the city in November and began work last month. Boxer comes to the city with experience in everything from working as a park ranger and preservationist to parks planning and emergency management training. She said she felt drawn to the Rogue Valley after having visited in recent years. "The Rogue Valley is just beautiful," said the 52-year-old. "I’ve been here before and I knew I would love it here and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to make a difference in a growing community." Advertisement With just a few weeks under her belt, Boxer said she has been busy "learning the ropes." The existing recreation program was built from the ground up by recently retired Parks Director Nancy Hanson. Boxer noted that Hanson’s program is "very well developed" after just four years in existence. While Hanson’s background has been in public and private recreation programs, Boxer brings to the job more of a focus on the parks side of things in addition to future planning. Like Hanson, Boxer supports the pursuit of grants — Hanson secured a key grant for the city’s planned skate park — and community involvement. Although she began her career with a biology degree from the University of California at Santa Cruz, Boxer said she always wanted to be closer to the outdoors rather than in a lab. Her first job out of college was as a park ranger for the city of Palo Alto, working with parts of the city’s more than 4,000 acres of open space. Boxer said she "saw a woman park ranger and that was it." "I knew I’d found where I wanted to be," she added. "I never wanted to be in a lab." Over the years she traveled around the country, working on projects focusing on wildlife and preservation of open space everywhere from Missouri and England to Pennsylvania. City Administrator Phil Messina said a hiring panel went to great lengths to find a suitable successor to foster the programs that Hanson worked so hard to build. One of a half-dozen applicants, Messina said Boxer was a good match for the growing city with parks to plan, a community center to build and a slew of other upcoming projects. "We had an interview committee of staff, administrators and council members, and we were all impressed with the way Katherine answered her questions," Messina said. "She had a strong grasp of strategic planning and building for the future and her experience and enthusiasm is really what I think made the decision that much easier. "We’re looking forward to working with her and seeing the next evolution of Central Point Parks and Recreation." Buffy Pollock is a free-lance writer living in Medford. E-mail her at [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Slippers Student Loans afsa teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress Advertisement s