Keithley
The new director of the Seymour Parks and Recreation Department will be sworn in Tuesday.
Chad Keithley is assuming that role, moving up from program director. He has worked for the department since 2019.
He said he applied for the director position for a few different reasons.
“The main reason is because of the current team that we have,” he said. “Not only the day-to-day operations, but we have a park board that is great to work with, and they care about our community just as much as our employees do.”
He said several team members encouraged him to apply.
“The encouragement from the current team, my wife, Lori, and the knowledge I received from former park directors helped me make my decision to apply,” Keithley said. “I have some big shoes to fill, and with the team I have backing me, I’m positive we can do that.”
He also wanted to make sure he helped fulfill and finish the projects that previous directors started.
“The support of community partners, park board members, sponsors and volunteers for the parks department is amazing,” he said. “I consider all of them a part of the team.”
Keithley is a 1993 graduate of Brownstown Central High School. He said he was an avid baseball player while growing up and really looked up to his high school coach, Steve Schrink.
“I was always going out to work on the fields during my study hall class, especially on game day,” he said.
That experience helped when he started with the parks department as parks operations director in 2019.
“At that time, Jeff Campbell was the program director. He reached out to me and told me a little about the position,” Keithley said. “I thought it sounded like something that I would be interested in doing. Not only did it mean taking care of the ball fields but also general maintenance on all facilities for the parks department. With my general contracting experience from previous years, I knew I was the man for the job.”
He spent nearly two years maintaining ball fields, overseeing day-to-day operations at the parks, City Cemetery and Seymour Community Center and working with Dave and Chris Boggs at Shields Park Pool on certain upkeep and repairs.
During his time in that role, Keithley was part of helping build diamonds 4 and 5 at Freeman Field Recreational Complex and overseeing construction crews on Burkhart Plaza and the area in front of the John Mellencamp mural.
In 2021, he accepted the position as program director.
In that role, he was involved with adding pickleball courts at Gaiser Park, a disc golf course at Freeman Field and all-inclusive playground equipment at several parks and implementing the Seymour Swing Putting for Parks golf scramble, which has generated more than $25,000 for the department to use toward Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant playground equipment.
“Currently, we have well over 120 different programs throughout the year,” Keithley said.
Now, he’s ready to settle into his new role leading the parks department.
“As a department, we believe parks are for everyone,” he said. “I look forward to completing our five-year master plan and the continuous improvements we make to make Seymour parks facilities and programs that draw interest to everyone in the community.”
On a personal note, Keithley and his wife recently celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary and were co-owners of Brewskies Grub and Pub and Brewskies Downtown for 15 years. They have three children, Maci, Marcus and Molly, and two grandchildren, Kara and Kayce. They are expecting their third grandchild in February.