Milton's Next Parks and Recreation Director Moving for Family

Milton's next Parks and Recreation director is a family man, making Metro Atlanta top on his list for relocation from Doral, Fla., a Miami suburb.

"I have two young daughters, ages 6 and 9, and I found the metro area to be an ideal place to raise my family. When the Milton position became available, after doing my research, it quickly became my personal top choice," said John Rebar.

Milton City Manager Chris Lagerbloom announced Rebar's hiring on July 26 to replace Cyndee Bonacci, who announced she would quit to be a stay-at-home mom to her young children.

The North Fulton city is young and on the move, he said, reminding him of what attracted him to Doral. That Florida community became a city in 2003, just three years earlier than Milton.

"It is exciting to me to be a part of something new and fresh," Rebar said. "In many professional positions you become a gear in the machine. I didn’t see that in Milton."

Rebar said he knew Milton is where he wanted to work after he met with City Manager Chris Lagerbloom and Human Resources Director Sam Trager.

Rebar said Doral is similar to Milton as new cities whose residents fought to become their own city, both with affluent residents. Doral does have three more years as a city, with the growth and development that came with hit.

"Another difference is revenue. Doral has an enormous amount of commercial property which results in a greater revenue stream feeding the general fund," Rebar said.

He was Doral's third Parks and Recreation director. The first person hired soon became Doral's assistant city manager, and Rebar replaced the next director who retired.

"Some of the challenges I faced included limited recreation space with a high demand, trying to meet the needs of all residents with what space was available and permitting for capital projects, as much of Doral’s vacant property is classified as wetland and needs a series of special permits and mitigation," he said.

 He plans to start planning almost immediately to create a road map for Milton's future development in Parks and Recreation. From that plan will come programming ideas and implementation strategies.