A Greene County employee is calling it quits after almost four decades of service.

Dan Towers started his career working with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Management in 1980. Then in 1985, he became the Greene County Conservation Director, which he continued for the next 37 years. During his tenure, Towers has seen Spring Lake Park grow from 35 campsites to 120, added 800 acres for public hunting, grew the conservation property from eight areas consisting of 600 acres to 20 areas with over 2,000 acres, along with the creation of the Raccoon River Valley Trail in 1995. Towers points out the bike trail was the most expensive project at $1.5 million. 

Towers says being a part of different projects is the most enjoyable part of his job.

“Coming up with a need, whether it’s something that we think we do or the public kind of demands it. Then finding ideas on how to proceed with that. The next step usually is finding money to do it with. And then actually going through the development of that and seeing it come to an end product that the public’s out there actually using.”

Towers appreciates the help and coordination his department has received over the years from the Secondary Roads Department, the County Board of Supervisors, his staff, the Greene County Community Foundation and the entire community support. As he retires, Towers talks about what he’s looking forward to the most with more free time on his hands.

“Just having a little more time to do the things that I love to do. I’m not looking for another job, so you can rule that out. I don’t know, I can see loading my fox hounds and going to find a coyote to chase way more often than I already do now, which is some people think is too much already. But that will be a priority.”  

Jefferson native Tanner Scheuerman was hired to be the new conservation director.