Lane hired as new assistant recreation director

Mike Lane has been hired as the new assistant recreation director for the Town of Conway. Lane, who served as the coordinator of the teen center at the recreation department since last November, takes over from Todd Gallagher, who resigned after nine years to accept the athletic director's post at Fryeburg Academy three weeks ago.Lane is more than a little familiar with the Conway Recreation Department, having been involved in its programs as a child. Eventually he became a summer counselor, a coach for the department and an official, before taking the job of running the teen center."Next to me," John Eastman, recreation director, said, "when I went through the rec program growing up, Mike is the second person to do it from start to finish as a full-time employee. ... I think he's going to do a great job the kids love him, and I know he has the support of the community."Eastman said Lane is wearing many hats at the moment with the summer program now more than halfway complete."There's a lot happening," he said. "With Todd gone we're down a counselor so any way you look at it when you average 90 kids a day, we're busy. Mike not only is my assistant but he's also in charge of the counselors and he's also being one, too. With three weeks to go (in the summer program) it doesn't make sense to fill (the counselor) spot. Mike Lansing is one of our swim instructors, and he's been helping us out when he can."Lane is looking forward to his new post."I'm really excited for the opportunity," he said. "The good thing is being able to follow someone like Todd, who everyone loved, showed me the right way the program should be. I worked under him for a year, and he was a very good teacher, and with John, you won't find a better boss than him."The teen center position was a job Lane enjoyed."It was a lot of fun; a good experience and good training for me in terms of preparing me for this job," he said. "Even though I was the teen center coordinator I was invovled in the rec programs. With the exception of soccer, I've had to run every program on my own, so I'm fairly comfortable with our programs. The only thing I haven't done is be invovled with the senior trips, but from what I've been told the seniors are extremely helpful, and I welcome their input."Lane and Eastman both smile when recalling the days when Lane attended the department's summer program. "Back then," Eastman said, "I think we had probably between 35 and 50 kids each day. We've definitely grown.""I don't think we even went on trips," Lane said."We still did trips back then," Eastman said, smiling."I think it helps me a lot having been through the program, seeing how it has grown," Lane said. "I remember playing flag football on Saturday mornings out here (at the Center Conway facility) and now we've got Friday Night Football under the lights at Whitaker (Field in North Conway) with the french fry trailer and all of the supporters."... I feel very comfortable in the transition," he continued."My goal is to basically try to make John's job as easy as I can for right now. I know I've got to train the new teen center coordinator when one is hired. Other than that, I'll start getting organized for flag football in September. There's so much going on here from the summer program to selling fries at the Fryeburg Fair. Even doing the teen center job, I never realized how much work is involved in running a recreation department."Lane plans on being in his new job for a while."It's a lot of fun and I love the kids," he said with a big grin. "They're the most important thing here and everything we're doing is for them. ... I love this area it's where I grew up and want to live. Conway is a very important place to me, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It didn't take me too long to be away at (New England College) to realize how much I want to be here." Lane has not yet moved into his new office, but promises it will be filled with Red Sox memorabilia. Gallagher and Eastman are both diehard Yankee fans."That's the biggest difference, but I think we can agree to disagree," Lane said, laughing.There's adiditonal news out of the recreation department lights were scheduled to be installed Thursday on the ball field in Center Conway. Eastman said the women's softball league will play its games under the lights there, as well as little girl's softball and Cal Ripken League baseball next spring. Once a week, the lights may also be turned on this fall for youth soccer or for make-up football games.