J. Byron Fanning has been the Director of Parks, Open Space, & Cultural Arts at Adams County since 2019. He began his career in restaurants and worked in that industry for many years including stops with Chick-fil- A and Denny’s Restaurants. With Denny’s he managed up to sixty restaurants and over four hundred employees. Eventually he opened his own restaurant concept called On the Go Bistro, a small family restaurant with excellent food and service in Arizona which unfortunately ended up as a casualty of the Great Recession almost 20 years ago. Fanning began his career in government in 2007 with the City of Aurora as a financial analyst for the Parks Department. From there he worked his way up to become the manager of a newly created division with the department, Business Services, managing the budget, registration systems, administration, and marketing among other duties. In 2015, and Byron took on the role of Recreation Manager, where he worked to improve customer service, participation, and financial performance. In 2019, the position at Adams County opened and Fanning was selected for the job. His tenure at Adams has seen the Open Space Tax reauthorized in perpetuity with a record 83% affirmative vote and the creation of a public art policy that calls for 2% of all eligible projects to be set aside for art projects. He has also overseen the design, construction, and maintenance of the world class Adams County Veteran’s Memorial, which includes a replica of the USS Colorado from World War II and a first of it’s kind concrete mural wall incorporating pictures of veterans from Adams County and is currently working on an $80 million renovation of Riverdale Regional Park, the only regional park in the county including updates to the original facilities from the 1960’s and a major drainage project in partnership with the Mile High Flood District.