Citizen of the Week: Thomas Sibley

Published 10:55 pm Friday, July 1, 2016

Thomas Sibley is “a concierge for our community,” said Steve Card, director of the Dalton Parks and Recreation Department.

Sibley, crew leader of maintenance for Heritage Point Park, maintains the facility and “is in contact with thousands of people throughout the year, that not only come to enjoy that park, but also our community in general,” Card said.

The facility has 10 softball fields, a playground, a dog park, the Rotary Pavilion which seats about 500 people and a disc golf course. There are typically tournaments played at the park 38 weekends out of the year with many people coming from out of town, Card said. And Sibley and his crew are responsible for maintaining all of it.

“They’ll come in and they’ll ask for special set-ups on the field. They’ll need tables and chairs set up. They may need golf cart transportation form one location to another, or something as simple as people asking for good locations to go in our community to shop and to eat,” Card said. “I get numerous calls from tournament directors and people from around that call and compliment, not only the park, but compliment him and the way that he deals with them.”

With the Dalton Parks and Recreation Fourth of July celebration at the park approaching Monday, Sibley has quite a workload ahead of him.

“Part of his responsibilities for the Fourth is to make sure that the park is in absolutely pristine shape as we realize that with what could be 15,000 visitors that come in, first impression is absolutely key,” Card said.

And it is a task he does well, according to Jason Shattuck, Dalton Parks and Recreation facility coordinator.

“Getting (that many) people there at one time, getting the park looking well, just having everything ready, he just does a really good job,” Shattuck said. “With him out there, you don’t have to worry someone isn’t putting their best foot forward.”

Sibley is responsible for making sure many of the activities — from a cornhole tournament to a Krystal eating contest — at the event are set up.

“We have so many different activities that require set up. The disc golf tournament that we have, followed a couple hours by a cornhole tournament, followed by eating contests and a wrestling event,” Card said. “So he may have to go at 2 p.m. to set up the disc golf course, then at 3 p.m. he’s putting cornhole boards down for the tournament, and at the same time he’s dealing with the Little Miss Rec coordinator and making sure all of the chairs are in order and the stage and back stage are clean and ready to go.”

According to Card, the event is “what his job is over a couple of weeks, smashed into eight hours.”

For helping maintain Heritage Point Park for people to enjoy and celebrate America’s independence, The Daily Citizen names Thomas Sibley Citizen of the Week.