‘Exactly The Right Person’

After national search Smith tabbed as Parks & Rec director

By Larry O’Connor

When it comes to providing a cogent strategy to attract residents to Northville’s plentiful leisure and recreational opportunities, Derek O. Smith will not be playing around.

The Durand, Mich., native brings a quarter century of experience to his new role as Northville parks and recreation director, having served in a similar role for Oakland County’s Independence Township. Smith’s first day on the new job was July 5. Smith, 50, also served as Southeastern Livingston County Recreation director and Novi Parks, Recreation & Forestry supervisor.

He succeeds Debra BilbreyHonsowetz, who filled in as interim director during the past year.

Smith, who has been an accredited Certified Parks and Recreation Professional since 1999, will oversee a staff of 76 people in his latest venture.

Northville Parks and Recreation Department serves the township and city. Smith will also marshal the Senior Division, which provides programs and services to the area’s aging population.

His remit includes ushering Northville through a complex Commission for Accreditation of Parks and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA) accreditation process as well as shepherding the department through an ongoing Master Plan.

Smith stood out during a national search, which produced 27 applicants.

“We believe that he’s exactly the right person for the position at this time,” said Todd Mutchler, Northville Township manager and public safety director.

Smith is married to Erica. The couple has two sportsdriven children, Owen, 15, and Josie, 11.

This spring, the son, who bears his father’s middle name, played on three hockey teams while the daughter was a member of two soccer clubs.

A harried mom and dad were left breathless trying to keep up with the myriad of games and tournaments.

“May was a train wreck,” Smith joked.

We caught up with Smith and asked him why he wanted the new job.

The ’Ville: What was the one thing that made you say, ‘Hey, I want this job’?

Smith: I’m familiar with the community because I did spend almost 10 years with the city of Novi back in the day. It’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then. (Northville has) so many cool things going on from a regional perspective, a lot of big park projects that are really — like (350-acre) Legacy Park, for instance. Those are community changers. That is something that really excited me to dig into at this point in my career.

The ’Ville: What is the Commission for Accreditation of Parks and Recreation Agencies, and why is that important?

Smith: It’s important because it is a deep dive into the policies and procedures of your department (Northville is undergoing the accreditation process). It’s not just for the Parks and Recreation Department. There are a lot of pieces that come into play for both municipalities, too.

It is a deep dive into so many different categories to make sure that you are the best of the best. We’ve been through the process twice in Independence Township (2016 and 2022 reaccreditation).

(CAPRA covers) employees to emergency action plans to financial perspectives. It is an exercise in making sure that your department crosses all the T’s and dots all the I’s.

That is a process that I think the community can be proud of their municipality, their department, to say, ‘Yes, we have one of the best departments around because they do everything by the book.’

The ’Ville: You will be overseeing the Senior Division. Why are you looking forward to working with that population?

Smith: I’m coming from a department (in Independence Township) with a super healthy senior operation. They’re one of my favorite groups of people to work with. My parents are that age. So, I’m excited to meet those folks and start getting into their programming.

The ’Ville: Are there senior programs from Independence Township you may try to implement here?

Smith: I know that we’re going through the Master Plan process in Northville currently, using the same company. A lot of those programming needs and questions will come out through that process. You have to complete a services assessment when going through the CAPRA accreditation process. And a lot of it will identify those markets that may need more attention. Most communities have the more popular programs: lunches, pickleball, and drop-in weeks.

I had a great staff at Independence. We’ve done a lot of senior programming. And one of them was grandparent programming. We would do a grandma tea hour where a (person dressed as a fictional character) would come in and read storybooks to the kids and the grandparents would have tea. What we’re finding is a lot of kids today are spending their summers with their grandparents. Mom and dad are both working. So this opens up a great opportunity.

The ’Ville: What are some of the emerging trends in recreation? Of those, what are you most excited about?

Smith: We find that trends, a lot of times, work their way west to east. So we always kind of keep our eye on California and some of those things because they have an extended season there where we’re kind of a four-season programming department.

In terms of facility trends, I got excited about Legacy Park when I saw the mountain bike courses that they’re looking to build. You don’t have to have 1,000 acres and 40 miles of mountain bike trails if you can add a technical park to a lot of these facilities. It will be enough to entice people to come back time and time again.

It’s really up to the imagination of the staff and empowering and giving those folks the resources to work at their natural best.

The ’Ville: You mentioned pickleball. Where does the trending activity fit in the recreation landscape?

Smith: It’s huge. Everybody needs more court space and, in particular, indoor sports courts. Not all of our seniors are snowbirds. The problem that I’ve run into is trying to find a place to play those programs indoors during the wintertime for the folks who stay behind.

Pickleball isn’t just a senior sport anymore. We have a lot of younger folks who are playing.

So, it’s starting to become more mainstream.

The ’Ville: You’re a big softball guy (Smith served as president of USA Softball of Metro Detroit). What can be done to rejuvenate the sport?

Smith: It’s a dwindling market because a couple of reasons: One being parents are way more involved in their kids. And, there are just so many more opportunities. More people are mountain biking, playing pickleball. A lot of those recreation opportunities are not scheduled. You can go and play pickleball whenever you want. It’s not every Tuesday night from six to 10. Those activities suit people’s busy lives.

There are a lot of girls playing softball, but our adult leagues across the state, and frankly across the country have diminished significantly. So, it’s just a trend of, again, dual household incomes and parents digging into their kids. They’re spending more money on their kids playing their sports. People are living more to give their kids the best opportunities.

When parents do take part in recreational activities, it has to be on their time and not a scheduled weekly activity.