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Morristown Magazine 49 “I was at the beach because that’s wheremy ex-wi- fe wanted to be,” he said, explaining that after the divorce he asked himself a simple question… “Where were you the happiest and it was East Tennessee,” he said. “I really fell in love with East Tennesseemy first time up here. I’ve always had the dreamof owning a small farmand that’s something you can’t do at the beach.” So Travis applied for and earned the job helming the City of Morristown’s Parks and Recreation De- partment where he found a robust system with po- tential but in need of modern upgrades and a fresh set of eyes. “The department when I got here was in fair sha- pe,” he explained, ad- ding he knew that some of the things he’d picked up from the various sys- tems he ran could help upgrade, including mo- ving youth sports pro- grams into a modern digital management sys- tem. The system proved an immediate upgrade, he explained. It allowed Barbee and his staff to have hard numbers at their disposal. This field, for ins- tance, booked at a 78% usage rate or this many kids are signed up for youth baseball or basketball. Ha- ving good solid numbers makes it easier for Barbee and his staff to make the case to city leaders that a particular program needs more fields, courts, or resources. “There’s a business side of parks and rec,” he Scenes from Parks and Recreation: Above: Flag football is a new program this year. Below: A concert at Fulton-Hill Park - left - and a youngster checks out the offerings at the annual Touch-A-Truck event.