After a long career in parks and recreation, Dundee Township Park District Executive Director Dave Peterson said he plans to retire this year.
“I will be assisting with a transition over the next months to ensure that the new director has all of the information and resources available to move forward,” Peterson said.
While there’s no set date for his last day, Peterson said the district hopes to have a new director in place by September.
Peterson started working for the Dundee Township Park District as a lifeguard in 1983 and was hired by the district’s finance department in 1990 after graduating from Dundee-Crown High School in Carpentersville and St. Olaf College in Minnesota.
In 1996 he took a job as Lake Bluff Park District’s superintendent of finance, but returned to Dundee Township in 2014 as the park district’s deputy director. He assumed the executive director job in 2017.
Throughout his tenure, Peterson has served as a liaison to organizations that include the Boys and Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs and the Northern Illinois Special Recreation Association.
Peterson said the district’s biggest accomplishments while he’s been at the helm have been adding the district’s first splash pad at Huffman Park in West Dundee; obtaining state grants to develop Hickory Hill Park in Carpentersville, Canterfield Park in West Dundee and the World of Wonders Building at Randall Oaks Zoo in West Dundee; and installing field lights at the Randall Oaks Baseball Complex in West Dundee.
Under his watch, the district helped facilitate the transfer of Barrington School District 220’s long-vacant Hickory Hill School property to the Boys and Girls Club of the Northwest Suburbs, he said. The building’s conversion into an Impact Center for the club is expected to be complete in August.
“We’ve also been good stewards of our financial resources, and we navigated the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure safety and financial sustainability were in place,” Peterson said.
After retiring, Peterson said he would like to work part time, perhaps at one of the park district’s golf courses or fitness centers or as a substitute teacher.
“I think I’ll need to do something to keep busy,” he said.
Mike Danahey is a freelance reporter for The Courier-News.
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