Recreation Department welcomes new leader Dan Gagne brings experience and enthusiasm
by Mark Jahne
Editor
Dan Gagne enjoys sports. So, it was a natural evolution that led him to enter the field of recreation as a career.
Gagne was hired a few months ago to serve as the director of the town’s Recreation Department after Scott Kieras resigned to accept a position as parks and recreation superintendent in Newington. He’s 40 years old and commutes every day from New Milford.
“I got my undergraduate degree in journalism. I wanted to be a sportswriter,” he said.
That degree was earned at Quinnipiac University. It’s also where he met the woman who is now his wife. He then attended the University of New Hampshire, where he participated in intermural sports. Gagne is a native of Spencer, Mass., not far from historic Sturbridge.
“A lot of my classes were municipal recreation focused. I’ve been working in recreation since college,” he said. “My first job was at the Litchfield Community Center.”
He also worked in recreation positions for the towns of Brookfield and Trumbull. He wanted to become a recreation director and now he has achieved that goal. He said Cromwell reminds him of his previous small-town experiences.
This town’s parks are technically part of the Public Works Department, which maintains and otherwise cares for them, but the Recreation Department makes extensive use of them and the two entities work closely with one another.
“I talk to the parks maintenance crew on a daily basis,” Gagne said. “We also have some-after school programs,” with sports offerings being the most popular. He added that the town’s recreation programs serve people of all ages.
“Our outdoor concerts are especially popular with seniors,” he said.
“I grew up a sports fanatic” who enjoys playing golf, gardening, fishing and traveling. He has traveled throughout the United States and the Caribbean. WL