A strong promotion from within will fill the park manager position at Lake Barkley State Resort Park.
Current Assistant Park Manager and Hopkinsville native Ashley Stevenson has been tabbed for the lead role, which goes into effect April 1. Staffers were notified of her promotion Monday morning.
One of 20-plus applicants for the highly-contested and coveted position in west Kentucky, she noted there’s excitement for two reasons:
1) There were this many people interested in the job.
2) She feels ready for the role, especially after having spent the last 10 months either helping former Park Manager David Miller, or serving the position as interim following his departure to John James Audobon State Park in Henderson.
State parks in Kentucky have endured much over the last 2 ½ to 3 years, serving as COVID-19 recovery units and emergency homes for displaced tornado victims in the west, and flood victims in the east.
That included locations such as Lake Barkley, Kenlake State Resort Park, Kentucky Dam Village and Pennyrile Forest State Park, and Stevenson has seen and worked some of this response and recovery first hand.
While the Governor’s Office and the Kentucky General Assembly have both promised an infusion of funds to the state parks system in the coming years, Lake Barkley State Resort Park has a number of capital projects underway.
As if they didn’t already have Stevenson’s attention already, they certainly come under her purview now — especially the repair and rehabilitation of the “fire wing” that caught aflame in late 2021.
Prior to her 10 months as assistant park manager and manager-on-duty, Stevenson served the park for three years as its sales representative. And before that, she worked a decade for the Pennyrile Area Development District in Hopkinsville.
Built in 1970, Stevenson is the park’s seventh-ever manager and first-ever woman in the position.