Mayor Mark Brown's Resume of Volunteer Service to the Town of Summerfield EMAIL MARK BROWN Let's keep Mayor Brown Summerfield's Mayor for another term. Summerfield needs his experienced and steady guiding hand! Mark Brown and Tim Nelson at the new ball park site doing a traffic count on US 220.  Mayor Brown spends countless hours helping the people of Summerfield with their questions, donating his time to charities and public events. A life long resident he is deeply involved in the town and has lead the Town Council with a quiet and steady determination to keep Summerfield moving forward in a positive way. Volunteer Service I became Summerfield's first elected Mayor during the election of 2005. Before that, I served as a member of the Summerfield Town Council through three terms: 1999, 2001, and 2003.   What follows is an outline of just a few of the town’s accomplishments during my time on various committees, as a member of the Town Council, and as the mayor of Summerfield. Summerfield Public Safety Committee With the approval of the Town Council in 1996, Rick Hall, the former fire chief, and I created the Town of Summerfield Public Safety Committee. The purpose of this committee is to examine issues and ideas brought before it in order to make recommendations to the Town Council. During this time, we brought to the Council a proposal to create the Town of Summerfield Emergency Shelter program, which still exists today. We also brought to the Council the idea and the specifications for the purchase of what we now know as the Town Generator, which is a large trailer-mounted generator that can power the emergency shelter and is currently located at the Summerfield United Methodist Church. The generator was Summerfield’s largest purchase up until that point. To date, the emergency shelter has been used several times during storms and hurricanes.  Along with several other town residents, I have been trained by the Red Cross to be an emergency shelter worker for the Town of Summerfield. Another important task of the Summerfield Public Safety Committee came as a result of my interactions with senior citizens’ programs—many coordinated through the United Services of Older Adults (USOA)—while employed by Sheriff’s Department.  I felt there was a strong need for some type of senior program in Summerfield, so I brought the idea to the attention of the Summerfield Public Safety Committee, who also agreed to its value.  The committee attended a USOA program, approved my recommendation, and forwarded the idea to the Summerfield Town Council.  The Council agreed to fund the program and continues to fund it today, along with a second senior citizens’ program through the USOA.  Since then, the USOA has been renamed Senior Resources of Guilford County. I resigned from the Town of Summerfield Public Safety Committee in September of 1999 in order to become a charter member of the Town of Summerfield Parks and Recreation Committee (SPARC).  Although every town committee is important, I found that being a member of too many might dilute my ability to effectively focus my attention and my efforts. Summerfield Parks and Recreation Committee I became a charter member of the Town of Summerfield Parks and Recreation Committee (SPARC) in September of 1999.  Our first meeting was held at the Summerfield Community Center and included six to eight residents, who coincidentally ALL turned out to be left-handed.  Under the guidance of Chair Debbie Hoffman, the committee planned and coordinated what has now become the successful completion of Phase 1 of the Summerfield Community Park.  The committee, along with consultants hired by the Town, did all the planning for the park. Committee members, working alongside the Summerfield Town Council, were responsible for the successful awarding to the Town of Summerfield of a $500,000 PART F grant by the State of North Carolina.  Phase 1 of the Park was completed in September of 2006. After many years of tireless efforts, Debbie Hoffman “retired” as Chair of SPARC in September of 2004.  Sue Beeson and I have co-chaired the Committee since that time, although Mrs. Beeson has done a remarkable job of handling the majority of the duties.  In 2007, SPARC and the Summerfield Town Council were successful in obtaining a second $500,000 grant for Phase 2 of the Summerfield Community Park.          In 2008 Mark resigned from the Parks and Recreation Committee to devote more time to the duties of Mayor. The Town had applied for and won a 2nd coveted grant from the NCD Parks and Recreation Trust Fund  (PART F)  and with funds from the Town of Summerfield has just completed (Aug 2008) Phase 2 of the Summerfield Community Park under budget.  It wasn't quite completed on time due to unusual rainfall in Summerfield in the winter of 2009 which delayed construction." Summerfield Community Relations Committee In May of 1997, a group of Summerfield citizens held the first Summerfield Founders’ Day Celebration.  Because of my capacity as Assistant District Commander of the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department (District 1 Office), I volunteered to coordinate the traffic route for the parade.  As the liaison between the event organizers, the State Highway Patrol, and the N.C. Department of Transportation, I assisted with the successful organization of route planning, crowd control, and traffic concerns.  This required extensive coordination of setting up/taking down road signs, creating detour routes, and manning necessary road blocks.  Many individuals played important roles in these endeavors, and thanks to their efforts, the first-ever Founders’ Day parade went off smoothly.  For every parade since then, I have handled traffic concerns even after my retirement from the Sheriff’s Department, although I still retain my status as a Reserve Officer with the agency.  I also offer great thanks to the Guilford County Sheriff’s Department, who has graciously provided equipment and personnel when available to assist with Founders’ Day and the parade.  Early in 1998, the same group of citizens who organized the first Founders’ Day asked me to head up the 2nd Summerfield Founders’ Day.  I agreed, and my first act was to have this group designated as a committee of the Town of Summerfield by the Town Council, which I felt was necessary to provide liability coverage for members of the committee.  The Town Council agreed and thus created the Community Relations Committee.  I served as chairman of this committee from 1998 to 2001.  I resigned from the committee in 2005 to better focus on my duties as mayor, although I left the committee in great hands.  Since the inception of Summerfield Founders’ Day, the Summerfield Community Relations Committee has successfully planned and held the event 13 times.  The 2009 Founders’ Day events included over 200 parade entries and 50 local businesses, schools, and organizations.  It also raised almost $1,800 for the historic elementary school gym. Brittain Building Committee In 1998, the Town of Summerfield took possession of the Brittain Building, originally built in 1885, which currently houses Summerfield Town Hall.  Under the guidance and leadership of Billy Tesh and Danny Nelson, many work days were set up for the remodeling of the Brittain Building.  This project was successfully completed by community volunteers, such as myself, who spent many Saturdays working from 1998 to 2000. My favorite anecdote from this project took place on the first day of cleanup as volunteers loaded junk into three dump trucks. In the upper story of the building was an old piano, which a roof leak had reduced to a mass of rotten wood.  Thinking back on cartoons from the 1950’s in which the cartoon characters pushed pianos out of upper story windows, I vividly recall pushing this particular piano from the second floor into a waiting dump truck.  It goes to show you that fun can be had despite engaging in the hardest of labor. I want to note that I was not a formal part of the Brittain building committee, but like so many others, I played my role.  Overall, the committee did a magnificent job of getting the building restored.  Because of these efforts, we now have a beautiful Town Hall at a significantly lower cost to the Town of Summerfield.