Albemarle promotes Smith to Parks and Recreation Director

After a nationwide search, Albemarle County has named a veteran of the Parks and Recreation Department to lead the office after the retirement of former director Bob Crickenberger.

“Our own Amy Smith, who has been the deputy director and, and has enjoyed a wonderful career serving Albemarle county, was our top candidate,” said County Executive Jeffrey Richardson.

Smith will lead a department with a $5,584,028 budget for fiscal year 2026 and 27 full-time employees. Two objectives in the county’s strategic plan address how parks can help reach Quality of Life Goals.

These are:

• 4.4 — Integrate parks planning with multi-modal transportation planning across the County
• 4.5 — Enhance overall access to parks and recreational opportunities with an emphasis on urban neighborhoods.

The FY26 budget also includes $1.5 million for work to pursue the latter objective through creation of a new urban pocket park on Hillsdale Drive as well as new amenities at Humphris Park.

Soon after being announced, Smith explained her philosophy toward parks and recreation.

“Our parks protect natural beauty, promote health and wellness, provide spaces for connection, and ensure that residents of all ages and abilities can enjoy the outdoors. I’m truly inspired by Albemarle’s commitment to quality of life,” Smith said. “I plan to build upon the same foundation through increasing innovation, strategic management of resources, and furthering, uniting and empowering our dedicated Parks and Rec staff and our amazing community partners.”

Smith began working for the county in 1993. Jack Jouett Supervisor Sally Duncan just joined the Board and said she was impressed by the time Smith has spent working for Albemarle.

“I just think it’s really great when we can retain people and have people, you know, build their careers here and have longevity,” Duncan said.

Supervisor Ann Mallek is in her fifth term representing the White Hall District and said Smith has helped oversee and manage many of the parks that have come on line in the past two decades and will now work to bring many more that are planned into reality.

“So many things on your plate with the blueways and Buck Island and the Brook Hill ramp and such a long, long list because there’s so many places that you already manage,” Mallek said.

The blueways are a series of amenities allowing people to use area rivers and streams for recreational purposes. As part of this effort, the county opened Brook Hill River Park on Rio Mills Road in the summer of 2019 and there are plans to develop a park at Buck Island 17 miles down the Rivanna River.

Smith helped lead a parks and recreation needs assessment for Albemarle in 2018 and creation of a parks strategic plan. Much of that is now within the Parks and Recreation Chapter of AC44, the name the county called their Comprehensive Plan. This link will take you right there.

There’s also the recreation side of the department which provides many ways for people to interact with each other. Richardson said the intent is to overcome obstacles as they pop up.

“When our middle school volleyball league registrations opened across Albemarle County, there was a rush of families signing up their students for this program,” Richardson said. “Henley was, was completely full within three minutes. Lakeside was full within 30 minutes.”

Richardson said there were many calls from people who were disappointed they missed out but the department showed flexibility in the name of customer service.

“So what the Parks and Rec department did was step back, reformatted the league and they expanded capacity, ultimately registering 400 participants across all the schools,” Richardson said. “And that eliminated the wait list.”

For more on how to provide feedback on the new Hillsdale pocket park as well as Humprhis Park, visit engagealbemarle.org.

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