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Hometown Pride: Jeff Craft


Hometown Pride features a person each week who helps make the community better.

Jeff Craft is a Jackson native who currently works as park forman for the Jackson City Park.

What do you do as park forman?

It’s a wide variety. We maintain all the sports fields, we do grounds keeping, we do the mass majority of the tree work, we clean the restrooms and the shelters. We do concrete work for the picnic table slabs and a little asphalt work on the walking trails.

How did you get involved with the Parks and Recreation department?

I’ve actually worked with other cities since 1989, and I transferred to the Jackson park about four years ago. I had worked here prior to that for about six years, and they asked me to come back to run it.

What drew you to working in parks?

I just like being outside and like everything that pertains to the park — the tree work, the mowing and the ball fields. There’s a variety of different things, so you’re not doing one thing all the time.

Are you originally from this area?

Yes, I am. I graduated from Jackson in 1984.

What do you like most about this area?

The people. Everybody knows everybody. I like the small-town atmosphere.

What are you most proud of here?

Probably my employees. We have a really good group of guys. We have a small group of guys and we stay extremely busy, but we have a good group. Everybody works together and everyone is a good team player. They work hard each and every week to make sure the park looks the best that it could be, and I couldn’t be more proud of the work they put in.

Jay Forness covers education, county government and community events for The Cash-Book Journal. He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in multimedia journalism and has lived in Jackson for the past five years. He can be reached at cbjedit@socket.net.

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