Career in Parks and Recreation Department
As director of the Recreation and Parks Department, he was at the center of two controversial park developments. One of the park developments involved the Smith Farm on the Broadneck Peninsula. The plan called for tearing down most of a horse farm and building ball fields over the land, leaving limited space for a community equestrian center. Local citizens organized against this proposal, and groups such as WHOA (We Hold Officials Accountable), SACReD (South Arundel Citizens for Responsible Development), and the Anne Arundel Green Party literally stood in front of the bulldozers to stop the farm from being torn down. Eventually the farm was preserved and is now the Andy Smith Equestrian Center.
The other controversy entailed converting a substantial portion of wetlands on Franklin Point into ball fields and parking lots. The local community organized against the proposal, offering alternate sites for the ball fields. However, it was only after the Critical Area Commission ruled that plans for the park would have to be severely curtailed that Anne Arundel County backed out of the proposed development. Callahan stated that the new offer would "fundamentally change the character of the plan, substantially reduce the number of park activities available to the Shady Side community and the public, and make development of certain park features problematical or perhaps impossible." This ended 5 years of negotiations between county and state officials.
During Callahan's tenure as the Recreation and Parks Director, football commissioners throughout the County petitioned the County Executive to have him removed from his position. On September 15, 2002 a fight broke out in the parking lot between the two competing football teams, the Cape St. Claire Cougars and Riviera Beach Buccaneers. During the incident, assistant coach Mike T. Pivec, 52, allegedly hit Rory Fracasse Jr., 15, in the face. The head coaches of both teams were put on two game suspensions. Cape St. Claire's Michael Harris, appealed the decision to county recreation officials under Callahans supervision. The officials lifted the two game suspension, however "members of the football association said that Callahan, who is a friend of Harris, intervened in the appeals process." They later petitioned to have him removed from the position, but were unsuccessful.
Read more about this topic: Dennis Callahan
Famous quotes containing the words career, parks, recreation and/or department:
“I began my editorial career with the presidency of Mr. Adams, and my principal object was to render his administration all the assistance in my power. I flattered myself with the hope of accompanying him through [his] voyage, and of partaking in a trifling degree, of the glory of the enterprise; but he suddenly tacked about, and I could follow him no longer. I therefore waited for the first opportunity to haul down my sails.”
—William Cobbett (1762–1835)
“Perhaps our own woods and fields,—in the best wooded towns, where we need not quarrel about the huckleberries,—with the primitive swamps scattered here and there in their midst, but not prevailing over them, are the perfection of parks and groves, gardens, arbors, paths, vistas, and landscapes. They are the natural consequence of what art and refinement we as a people have.... Or, I would rather say, such were our groves twenty years ago.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Playing snooker gives you firm hands and helps to build up character. It is the ideal recreation for dedicated nuns.”
—Archbishop Luigi Barito (b. 1922)
“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.”
—Tennessee Williams (1914–1983)