BY ANN GENADER
WEST MILFORD — There is an empty chair in the West Milford Recreation building department chief’s office.
Tim Roetman, the former director of the Community Services and Recreation department is has begun his new position at Wayne Township. Roetman, who continues to live in West Milford, was respected in his former job and officials admit it will be a tough job for them to fill his shoes.
The person hired for the directorship will take on responsibilities as the department head and will supervises full-time, part-time and seasonal staff and be responsible for the department’s $1.5 million operating budget.
West Milford wants “a highly motivated individual with strong supervisory skills to plan, develop and promote a comprehensive scope of recreation programs and services," according to the advertisement for the position on New Jersey League of Municipalities website.
A qualified candidate must have excellent verbal and written communication skills and customer focus, the according to the post. A candidate must also have supervisory experience in a public environment with skills including parks development, event and facility management, aquatic facility management, grant writing and recreational programming.
The job requires evening, weekend and holiday work.
A bachelor degree and a minimum of five years supervisory experience are required.
Letters of interest in the job and resumes should be sent by Elaine Celano, West Milford senior payroll clerk, 1480 Union Valley Road, West Milford NJ 07480.
After three years on the job, Roetman submitted a letter of resignation on Feb. 2.
He did not give details as to why he left. Council President Tim Wagner views the his loss as unfortunate. Efforts by Wagner and others to convince Roetman to stay local failed.
Wagner said Roetman was the driving force behind many projects that are underway.
Roetman’s accomplishments in West Milford included overseeing renovations at the Westbrook Park Teen Center, moving the department from the Board of Education Owned Hillcrest School to the former West Milford PAL building (renamed West Milford Recreation Center) and starting the recreational field complex project at Nosenzo Park.
A recreation committee meeting scheduled for Thursday night was not held due to lack of a required quorum.