[Editor’s note – The following article is being reprinted with permission of the Cookeville (Tennessee) Herald Citizen, written by staff writer Brittany Stovall. John Ross Albertson is the son of Johnny and Patricia Albertson, formerly of Albany and the grandson of Audie Pyles and the late Wendell Pyles, Jack Albertson and the late Joyce Albertson, all of Albany.]

The county has a new director at the Parks and Recreation Department.

“Everything’s going well,” said John Ross Albertson, who took the position March 1.

The Cookeville native is currently assessing the needs of the department, while also getting acquainted with his employees and other department heads.

“It’s a learning phase right now, and I’m still trying to find out what issues we have and what needs to be addressed … and trying to figure out what future we want to establish at the department,” Albertson said.

He is also in the early stages of creating a department flight plan to help promote Cookeville and Putnam County.

“That’s going to be one of my biggest goals, to try and promote this county the best that we can through our sports we have here, and even our parks.”

Before landing his new job, Albertson was the athletics equipment coordinator for all sports at Tennessee Tech University. He started his career by working his way up in TTU football as a student manager while pursuing his bachelor’s degree in sports management. He is currently wrapping up his master’s degree, also in sports management.

Why he decided to transition to the county, Albertson said, “With this position, I thought I could get in and make a difference for the community. Having lived here all my life, I wanted to try and do anything I can for Putnam County. Growing up here, I have a lot of pride in the community. And that’s one of the things I’ve always felt…”

“The people here are completely different than anywhere else,” he continued. “We’re a unique community that can get involved together and be able to do big things. For example, just with TSSAA and seeing the interaction between [Cookeville], the Chamber of Commerce and the county all working together to promote events like that, I can just see a very bright future ahead for our whole community here.”

Albertson replaced Joyce Bryant as director; she retired from the position last month.