The Rural Municipality of Hanover will have a new Manager of Recreation and Community Services by the end of the month.

After nearly four years at the position, Lisa Baldwin has announced she is stepping down. Hanover Chief Administrative Officer Luc Lahaie says Baldwin will be missed.

"Lisa had the great charisma and she was very dynamic in working with her community centre boards," says Lahaie. "She had the education behind her, she had her enthusiasm in providing that leadership to our community centre boards in giving them direction to meeting their goals."

But Lahaie says the person they have hired to take over for Baldwin comes with plenty of experience. Jason Peters, who has worked with Steinbach Parks and Recreation for about 13 years, will join Hanover on June 18. Lahaie says he is no stranger to the southeast.

"(Peters) will be a great benefit to the RM of Hanover," notes Lahaie. "His experience and his background in volunteerism with youth coaching, in soccer, baseball and volleyball will be very beneficial."

With Peters coming from the region, Lahaie says he doesn't anticipate there will be a large learning curve.

"Hanover and Steinbach being great neighbours, we don't see him having to learn too much about what Hanover is all about and how we function and how we run our rec and community services department here in our municipality," notes Lahaie.

Having said that, Lahaie says Steinbach and Hanover run their programs in different ways. While Steinbach has a parks and rec department that is mostly run by city administration, Hanover has five separate community centre boards run by volunteers. Lahaie notes these boards generally lead the charge for their towns and then Hanover's rec manager will provide leadership.

"The boards would generally have an idea, they bring up the ideas, they can bring up different projects they are seeking and Lisa will then assist them and provide them with direction on where to apply for grants," explains Lahaie. "She would also apply for grants for them and just give them a hand on anything they want to work on."

Baldwin's last day is June 22nd, which means there will be one week overlap between her departure and Peters' arrival. Lahaie says this will give Baldwin a chance to orientate Peters, updating him on their current projects, touring the municipality and introducing him to the various community centre boards.

"We're very sad to see her go, she was a breath of fresh air, she brought new ideas," says Lahaie. "Hopefully we can cross paths again with her in one shape or form with Hanover."

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