Pardue is hired for 4-H post

In her office on an unseasonably cool July morning, Amy Pardue fields a telephone question about special use permits for businesses. A subdivision plat covers most of her desk.

On a bulletin board just outside her door, two child-size baseball shirts are splayed near a letter thanking Pardue for helping to get the speed limit reduced in a Piney Creek community. A volunteer coach and a boy wanting to play football stop by.

Such are the traces of Pardue's diverse jobs—recreation director and planner for Alleghany County.

"You just never know what you're going to be doing. It's never boring," she says with a good-natured laugh.

She admits the juggling act has had its moments, "but it's been a good experience."

Pardue will soon be turning these jobs over to someone else. Two people, actually.

She has accepted the post of extension agent for Alleghany County 4- H, which she hopes to begin in early September.

Meanwhile, the county commissioners are advertising for one person to fill the post of planner and one person to fill the post of recreation director.

"They had talked about doing the split for years. It's past time for it to happen," she said. "Where we are in land use planning and recreation, they're not really related."

Both jobs are demanding, dealing with a recreation board, advisory boards for each recreational activity, plus the county fair and fairgrounds boards, a planning board, the county commissioners, developers, parents, kids, business leaders and practically everybody in between.

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