Haley Geyer

ADAMS TWP — Beginning in the fall, the programs and procedures at the large township park will be guided by a parks and recreation director.

The supervisors at their April 25 meeting voted to hire Haley Geyer as the first person to fill the position.

Supervisor Russ Ford said Geyer will work 20 hours per week beginning this fall.

He said the township received many outstanding applications for the position. The township parks and recreation committee selected five candidates from applications, and interviewed those candidates along with the supervisors.

“We had an array of people,” Ford said. “We were extremely excited about the amount of forethought these candidates had (regarding programs) for our park going forward,” Ford said.

Geyer, the daughter of county commissioner Kim Geyer and her husband Robert, grew up in Adams Township. She is currently the recreation director at the Boathouse Club in Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Geyer graduated from Slippery Rock University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in resort recreations, and management and tourism, with an emphasis in business administration.

“I’m really happy and looking forward to getting started with Adams Township,” Geyer said on Friday from Massachusetts. “I want to help make the township a better place to live and play, and I want to create better recreation opportunities for people who live there.”

She will move home in the fall after the completion of her job at the Boathouse Club to begin her employment at the township building on Valencia Road.

Geyer’s first order of business will be sitting down with the parks and recreation board and the supervisors to determine their goals for the 140-acre park.

“I’m going into this with a new perspective,” she said. “I feel like it’s definitely going to take time, and everyone is going to have different ideas.”

Geyer also plans to find a way to get input from the township residents regarding their desires for the park, where she plans to institute activities and programs for all ages.

“And I want to give them a reason to keep coming back,” she said.

She said the township park already has many features, such as a 1.3-mile walking trail, that programs can be planned around. That means the township can avoid much of the expense of adding features for recreation programs.

“I want to develop programs and services that will work for the people of Adams Township,” she said. “I think that’s going to be the key, finding what fits.”

Her parents have always advised her to follow her passion in looking for a career field, and Geyer said she has done just that, as she loves the outdoors and serving people.

“I think only good things are going to come of this,” Geyer said. “I’m so excited to return home and work for the place where I grew up.”