South Fayete’s new parks and rec director jumping in head first
South Fayette Township’s new parks and recreation director Butch Truitt said he has a “commitment to bring everything up to the standards it should be.”
Truitt, who was hired this year at the end of March, has been at his new job for just more than a month and so far he says things are going “great.”
Prior to coming to South Fayette, Truitt, who has a wife, Rita, three grown children and three grandchildren, worked as the parks and recreation and public works director in Oil City, Venango County. Although he held the two positions simultaneously since 1998, he had worked for the city since 1974.
In his former position, he headed up maintenance on the city’s parks, pool, deck hockey court and marina as well as overseeing the water department, street department and city garage.
Truitt worked under former Oil City manager and current South Fayette manager Ryan Eggleston before Eggleston came to South Fayette in June 2012. Truitt also served as Oil City’s interim manager until Jan. 14.
“Ryan knew what I was all about,” Truitt said on a sunny morning in May under a pavilion at the township’s Fairview Park – a multi-use park with a dog run zone, a playground, sports courts and ball fields.
In addition to Fairview, the township also maintains several other parks, including the multi-use Morgan Park, Boys’ Home Park, El Rancho Park, Sturgeon Park, Koppers Field and part of the Panhandle Trail. The township also has a master plan for Treveskyn Park.
Right now, Truitt’s department at South Fayette has been busy cutting grass and weed eating at the parks and the traffic islands in the township. He said one of the keys to having everything run smoothly is “try to work together and get everybody on board.”
He said in his role as parks and recreation director he would like to strive for better communication between the parks and recreation board and the township’s athletic associations. “That has been lacking in the past,” he said. “We need to take care of what we have now, so we can look on to the future.”
One of the main priorities is to finish the pavilion at the far end of Fairview Park that’s been under construction for some time. Truitt would like to see a road built back to the pavilion because there’s currently no access to it.
He added right now he wants to make sure maintenance and safety issues are addressed, such as painting and cutting down trees and rebuilding picnic tables. “It’s going to take a while,” he said, to get everything up to the way it should be.
Truitt has also been busy helping to organize the township’s summer programs, including the summer playground program that starts June 24, as well as baseball, lacrosse, soccer and golf lessons.
Truitt said everyone has been welcoming to him at his new job. He said communication is a key to success. “I’m all about communication. Only good will come out of that,” he said. He added that the people who should be praised are “all the guys that do all the work here and the associations (who run the township’s sports teams).”
Truitt said one philosophy he has in life came from his dad, who always told him, “‘Treat people the way you want to be treated.'”