Ask most residents what the Parks and Recreation Department does, and you will probably hear about softball leagues and mowed grass. Ask Brian Clarke, and he will tell you that is only a small piece of it.
As Norton Shores’ Parks and Recreation Superintendent, Clarke and his team maintain nine parks, the grounds at City Hall and the fire stations, and the medians along Seaway Drive. They manage a deer population program, book weekend rentals that run nonstop from January through fall, and keep an eye on everything from vandalism to unpermitted tree forts in the woods. If it happens outdoors in Norton Shores, there is a good chance Clarke’s department has a hand in it.
“Basically anything and everything that goes on outdoors usually touches us some way or another,” he said.
From Ballfields to Best in the Area
Clarke’s story with the city started at Ross Park in the early 2010s, when he came on as a contractor caring for the softball fields and running leagues. Softball was fading in popularity at the time, and Clarke set out to change that.
“I went out there with the idea of what can we do to improve this park to bring more people to the park,” he said.
New fencing went in. Scoreboards were donated. Weekend tournaments started drawing families who found something at Ross Park that other facilities did not offer: shade, picnic space, and room to gather.
“We were a lot more family oriented,” Clarke said. “That was the goal from day one, to make changes out there so people wanted to come and spend time.”
That same instinct carried into the park’s disc golf course, once an overlooked corner that got new irrigation, healthier turf, and lights that made night games possible for youth leagues.
“That’s what taught me about running the operations of the park,” Clarke said. “A lot of it is just the human connections that you make.”
The Deck, the Pickleball Courts, and a Community Gathering Place
Some of Ross Park’s most popular features almost did not happen. Plans for a new deck stalled for years after early grant applications fell through, until federal ARPA funding during the pandemic gave the project new life.
Clarke remembers clearing trees along the hillside and having the city manager at the time stop mid-run to take in the newly opened view.
“He said, ‘ Man, that’s really nice. I didn’t know we had that good of a view,’” Clarke said. “It was just making little changes like that. We thought we could bring more people down there and get people back to the beach.”
Pickleball courts followed after years of resident interest and a lengthy approval process. Today, the courts rarely sit empty.
“I go to the movies quite a bit on weekends, and my wife and I will drive by there. There are people out there at eleven o’clock at night, still playing pickleball,” Clarke said.
The deck has since become home to Sunset Sessions concerts, Monday evening yoga, exercise classes, and a growing ski show that may soon run weekly. Rentals for weddings, graduations, and memorials have grown in popularity, too.
“There is something going on pretty much every weekend,” Clarke said. “That’s where you want to be.”
The Department’s Biggest Weekend
Ask Clarke about the single event that puts his department’s work on display most, and he points to Arts & Drafts. Held every August at Ross Park, the festival has grown into the department’s largest undertaking of the year, drawing more than 10,000 people to the community over a single weekend.
The day brings together the Art Fair, now in its 49th year, along with the Arts & Dash 5K, the Arts & Wheels Car Show, a children’s activity area, live music, and the Grand City Show Skiers performing on Mona Lake. It is a full showcase of the same park Clarke has spent his career building up, and a reminder of how far Ross Park has come from the softball-only facility it once was.
For Clarke, it is proof of what steady, patient work can add up to. A park built one improvement at a time now hosts thousands of visitors in a single day, and his team is the one making sure it all comes together.
Beyond Ross Park
Clarke’s attention stretches well past the park where he got his start. At Lake Harbor Park, his team has marked new walking trails, added directional signage, and managed a deer hunting program that draws mixed reactions from neighbors.
“Some really like the deer out here, some want to kill them all,” Clarke said with a laugh.
A new basketball court recently opened at Avondale Park, and Clarke is looking ahead to a possible splash pad at Lake Harbor and another shelter at Ross Park, projects he hopes to see through before he retires in about a year and a half.
“I would like to see as many improvements as possible,” he said. “We want to just beautify everything. I want people, when they come to Norton Shores, to come here for that. We’ve got some really nice parks, and we’ve got lake access everywhere.”
A Week in the Life
A typical week for Clarke starts early with mowing schedules and moves through trash collection, rental permits, budgeting, and whatever unplanned issue lands on his desk, whether that is graffiti, an ATV tearing up trails at Lake Harbor, or a complaint about an overgrown yard that needs to be dispatched under city ordinance.
He credits his small full-time crew and a summer roster of teenage and college-age staff for keeping it all running.
“We’re family here,” Clarke said. “That’s the biggest thing I can say about my group. We all have the same goal, we all have the same mindset.”
Many of those young employees, including his longtime right-hand Chase Klairter, started as summer temps and kept coming back.
“These kids come back year after year, and that, to me, for as hard as they work, and they all want to come back the next year, it says a lot,” Clarke said.
Part of Something Bigger
For Clarke, the appeal of the job has never been about a title. It is about building something residents can point to for years to come.
“I wanted to be a part of something. I wanted to see it grow,” he said. “The Outlook Deck, I got to be in from the beginning on that. I got to be in on the deer hunt program. That’s something that I felt: the more of a footprint that we had here, that’s something I could tell my kids, my grandkids. This is up and running, this is going, because I got to be in on it.”
That mindset, he says, is what he hopes to leave behind for the next generation of city staff and residents alike.
“We are always looking to improve. We’re never going to be satisfied. We’re always going to look to make it better,” Clarke said.
It is a fitting closing thought for a department that touches nearly every corner of the community, often without residents realizing it. The next time you walk a trail at Lake Harbor, catch a concert on the Ross Park deck, or watch your kids shoot hoops at Avondale, there is a good chance Brian Clarke and his team had something to do with making that moment possible. And they are already thinking about what comes next.
