{"id":43149,"date":"2021-12-20T22:01:44","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T05:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-hires-new-directors-for-recreation-and-public-works\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:12:01","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:12:01","slug":"cortez-hires-new-directors-for-recreation-and-public-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-hires-new-directors-for-recreation-and-public-works\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez hires new directors for recreation and public works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cortez
Cortez will have an election June 8 to ask voters to opt out of state telecommunication law SB 152. (Journal file photo)<\/span>Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The city of Cortez has hired new staff, is conducting invasive tree mitigation and has launched a financial transparency public portal, said City Manager Drew Sanders.<\/p>\n

Creighton Wright has been selected to serve as the director of the Parks and Recreation Department.<\/p>\n

\"Creighton
Creighton Wright has been hired as the director of parks and recreation for Cortez.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wright previously served as parks director for American Canyon, California, and had the same position with the city of Pueblo. He also was the assistant parks and recreation director for Queen Creek, Arizona.<\/p>\n

Wright has a bachelor\u2019s degree in recreation management and a master\u2019s in public administration from Arizona State University. He is relocating to the Cortez area and will start in February. Wright replaces former director Dean Palmquist.<\/p>\n

Brian Peckins has been selected for the city public works director. He has worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a civilian employee since 1981.<\/p>\n

\"Brian
Brian Peckins has been hired as the new public works director in Cortez. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Peckins is a licensed engineer who has worked in various locations and assignments around the world on micro and major scales, Sanders stated in a manager\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

Peckins, who hails from northern Virginia, currently is stationed in Los Angeles. He earned his bachelor\u2019s degree in civil engineering at Virginia Tech, and a master\u2019s degree in civil engineering and water resources from Utah State University. He also has a master\u2019s degree from the National War College. Peckins is anticipated to start March 1. He replaces former director Phil Johnson.<\/p>\n

Cortez is hiring a community and economic development director and has three applicants.<\/p>\n

The Cortez Parks and Recreation Department has been awarded a $28,350 grant from the Invasive Tree Project, funded by Great Outdoors Colorado in partnership with Colorado Youth Corps. The grant includes a saw crew for three weeks to work to abate invasive tree problems at Denny Lake, Geer Natural Area, and Carpenter Natural Area.<\/p>\n

The city has invited residents citizens to check out the new online Transparency Center. It is powered by ClearGov, which provides online budgeting and communications software for local governments.<\/p>\n

The Transparency Center provides residents with an interactive breakdown of the city\u2019s finances and budget. It is optimized for use by citizens with disabilities who rely on assistive technology such as screen readers and voice recognition software. Read more at Cortez Financial Transparency Center<\/a>, at the city\u2019s website, cityofcortez.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

process continues for economic development director<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29,976],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-outdoor-recreation"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43149"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85590,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43149\/revisions\/85590"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43149"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}