By Ryan Berry

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — After announcing late last year that Roger Van Frank, director of the Darke County Parks (DCP), was going to retire, a successor has been found. The DCP’s Board of Commissioners didn’t have to go too far to find Van Frank’s replacement. He was already working at the parks as their chief naturalist. Robb Clifford will work with Van Frank throughout the rest of 2023 and will take over as the director on Jan. 1, 2024.

Clifford started full-time with DCP in 2007, but was familiar with the organization having served as intern for two summers prior to being hired. He graduated from The Ohio State University with a Natural Resources Degree.

He is a native of the Englewood area and graduated from Northmont High School, which played a part in him discovering Darke County and the parks district. His high school biology teacher was Steve Shaltry. Shaltry is a former DCP commissioner and encouraged Clifford to come north to Darke County. “He mentioned to my wife, fiancée at the time, that they had an internship up here. At that time, I didn’t know much about the parks up here at all and kind of slid into that role. I was fortunate enough that a position opened up,” he said.

Van Frank was the director when Clifford was hired.

In 2009, Clifford was promoted to chief naturalist.

After 16 years at DCP, Clifford has had his hand in a lot of the programming and events that take place in the parks. So far, he said he is most proud of the displays in the rooms at the Nature Center. “I’ve had a heavy hand on the revitalization and new displays,” he said. He specifically pointed to the tree that is in the front lobby. “That’s one of those things that I was kind of like this is what I was looking at. Co-workers and grant funding, we were able to put that together in house,” he said.

Clifford has been around for a lot of the park district’s growth, which has included the log cabin, Sugar Shack, bike trail, addition of Bear’s Mill, Bish Discovery Center and a lot more, but he points to Eidson Woods as one of his favorites. “That was the main one where I helped layout the trail system with a volunteer who was familiar with the property. Still, to this day, it’s my favorite one to go and walk at,” he said. Clifford said he reminds him of his grandparents’ woods when he was growing up because that is where he began his journey with nature.

While Van Frank has a huge thumbprint on the park with the many events and expansions over the years, Clifford already has a little bit of a thumbprint with some of the things he has brought to park district. He wants the district continue to evolve into something the community wants. “I’m hoping to, in the near future, to reach out to the community…to get a better feel and make sure we are actually providing what the majority of people want,” he said.

He said he would like to expand the bike trail to other communities and eventually link up with some of the neighboring counties.

However, the immediate focus will be on Bear’s Mill. The working mill will turn 175 years next year and is need of maintenance. The Friends of Bear’s Mill and DCP are working together to raise funds to repair the Mill’s foundation. He said he would like to eventually see revenue come in from the state because of the Mill’s historical significance.

Van Frank and Clifford have been gearing towards the potential change in leadership for the last couple of years. He said they worked closely to get things in the direction they want to go.

As for the DCP commissioners, Clifford has had several conversations with them on his vision and their vision for the district. They are hoping to be less focus on the administration and more on programming. However, the programming will not be lecture focused. They want to come up with better ways to get to people to the parks for events. Although they unveiled Bash at Bish this year, the parks also promotes Maple Sugarin’ and Prairie Days to name a few. One of the events Clifford brought to DCP was the Luminary Walk in December.

To contact Daily Advocate Editor Ryan Berry, email [email protected].