For the last 12 years, Shallon Touet has been Arena and Parks manager for the District of Vanderhoof, a small town in the interior of B.C., but on Monday, April 4, he will have a new job – Parks and Recreation director for Barrhead.
Touet replaces Sue Keenan who left Barrhead in early January to accept a job as Fort MacLeod’s chief administrative officer (CAO).
“I have basically been in the recreation field all my working life,” he said during a telephone interview. “My first arena job (shortly after graduating high school in Saskatchewan) was in Edmonton in the Beacon Heights area at a little outdoor rink as a labourer.”
From there Touet moved to the lower mainland area of B.C. where he worked for three different municipalities, Mission, Maple Ridge and Abbotsford, all at the same time.
“Most of my time I was in Mission where I worked full-time in facility maintenance looking after all their recreation buildings, which included the ice and curling rinks, as well as all their playgrounds,” he said.
In Abbotsford and Maple Ridge, Touet worked as a part-time ice person, mostly as a Zamboni opertator.
“It sure made for some busy times and there were times that I didn’t get a lot of sleep, but for anyone who has ever lived in the Fraser Valley, they know how expensive it can be to raise a family there,” he said.
Eventually he reached the point where he felt he could no longer advance in his career so he decided to make the move to Vanderhoof and take on the challenge of being the arena and parks manager.
It was for a similar reason Touet decided to apply for the position in Barrhead.
“I was getting a little bit complacent. I have everything in templates so I was feeling less and less challenged, so I decided to start looking around for other challenges,” he said.
When asked how he found out about the opening in Barrhead, Touet said the position has been on his radar for quite a while, adding he actually was one of the finalists for the position along with Keenan the last time the position was open.
“I guess they were looking for someone with a little different experience and skill set at the time,” he said, adding he believed Keenan was the right fit. “She has more experience in negotiating contracts and I think that was something they were looking for with what stage the pool project was at.”
Touet says he believes his strongest strength, is probably his experience and versatility.
“As I was telling Mr. Taylor (Barrhead’s CAO) during my interview, I have been working in recreation for 34 years and there isn’t much I haven’t done,” he said. “It definitely helps. I love to do a job that I have done before, so when I assign it to someone I know all the potential pitfalls we can get into and how we can hopefully avoid them.”
Touet said what he is looking forward to the most about his new position is the challenge and the facilities.
“Especially for a town this size. It is something Barrhead should really be proud of and when the pool is completed they will be just that much better,” he said. “Plus I just love the look of the town. It’s just a really neat, clean town and it is somewhere my wife and I are looking forward to being able to stay for 15 to 20 years and retire in.”
