Pine Plains resident Brian Coons has built a career at the intersection of public service, environmental stewardship, and military leadership. Now, as Dutchess County’s new parks director, he’s turning his focus to the county’s expansive park system — particularly Wilcox Park in Milan, which he sees as brimming with untapped potential.
Coons, who will continue to serve as recreation director in Pine Plains through the end of 2025, was offered the parks job by county executive Sue Serino in December. He now oversees 10 active recreation areas managed within the Parks Division of the Department of Public Works. With a $3.86 million operating budget for 2025 and a salary of $99,418, he is tasked with balancing conservation, accessibility, and programming across a diverse portfolio of public spaces, including over 900 acres of parks, a 4,300-seat baseball stadium, more than 30 miles of rail trails, and 250 acres of undeveloped land closed to the public.
Coons has had a chance to look over most of the county’s parks since taking office. “They are all in pretty good shape,” he told the Herald. “But some of the buildings need work.” He will lead that work and guide 18 Dutchess County Parks employees from his headquarters at Bowdoin Park.
A 301-acre riverside property in Wappingers Falls with stunning views of the Hudson River, Bowdoin Park is a beehive of activity — drawing an estimated 239,000 visitors in 2024 — with hiking trails, sports fields, a cross-country course, an archery range, educational programs, and space for dog walkers too. The park also welcomes weddings and other gatherings at its pavilions, rustic cottages, and a lodge that can sleep 24.
(R. A. Hermans/The New Pine Plains Herald)
Wilcox Park, a 600-acre destination in Milan, known for its hiking trails and renowned disc golf course, had over 17,000 visitors in 2024 — up from under 13,000 in 2023. Despite that increase, Coons believes the 614-acre park is underutilized, and he has the support of his boss, Department of Public Works Commissioner Robert Balkind, to expand programming there. Wilcox is known for its landscape and a disc golf course that is rated the best in New York and 69th among the more than 10,000 courses in the world.
Hiking over and around the rolling wooded hills is one of the park’s major draws. “The Wilcox trails are beautiful and very well maintained,” Coons said, but he mentioned that some minor sections on the east and southern portion of the perimeter trail will be abandoned and allowed to return to a wild state. Work at the park will also include some reforesting to replace trees that have not survived since a major planting effort by Frederick Wilcox a hundred years ago.
While maintaining the disc golf excellence is important to Coons, his immediate plan is to increase nature programing. “We want more educational and outdoor activities to go on there, but not turn it into a circus,” he said. As warm weather approaches, the staff has begun to tap maple trees for sap that will be processed into syrup at Bowdoin Park.
In addition to Bowdoin and Wilcox, the Parks Department also oversees a pair of popular attractions in Poughkeepsie: Quiet Cove Riverfront Park, which offers sweeping Hudson River views, and Upper Landing Park, which serves as the gateway to the Walkway Over the Hudson.
The county also maintains two major rail trails — the 13.4-mile William R. Steinhaus Dutchess Rail Trail and the Harlem Valley Rail Trail, an 18-mile corridor stretching from Wassaic to Millerton and beyond. Combined with the Northside Line, a 2-mile urban trail linking key destinations in Poughkeepsie, the county’s rail trails drew more than 300,000 cyclists, runners, and walkers in 2024, and officials expect that number to grow.
Beyond its traditional parks, Dutchess County manages Heritage Financial Park, home to the Hudson Valley Renegades. Some properties remain off-limits to the public but require ongoing maintenance, such as the 200-acre Lake Walton Preserve and Fallkill Lake Park, where the staff oversees environmental stewardship efforts.
While enthusiastic about every aspect of his job, Coons spoke most excitedly about the bald eagles and golden eagles that live at Bowdoin Park. “They’ve been nesting there for 10 to 20 years,” he said. “The nests are 6 feet in diameter and these eagles are flying around the park all day long.”
(Robert Rightmyer)
A Pine Plains native, Coons graduated from Stissing Mountain High School in 1984 and enrolled in Dutchess Community College. Eighteen months later, he followed a family tradition and enlisted in the U.S. Army. After completing his service, he returned to finish his degree at DCC, then attended SUNY New Paltz, where he had an internship with the Dutchess County Planning Department.
Coons’ first job after college was in New York City, where he worked in traffic planning and transportation modelling for the city. While there he signed up for the Army’s Try One program, putting his planning and design skills to work. Try One allows former service members to join the reserves on a year-to-year basis. In the program Coons worked for three weeks at Ground Zero after 9/11, and was soon after assigned to civil engineering projects, first as a leader of a Civil Affairs Team in Iraq in the mid-2000s, then in two stints in Africa. He provided humanitarian aid and helped civilians with infrastructure problems, repairing utility systems like electrical grids and sewers, and building essential structures such as community centers, schools and hospitals. He then served in the National Guard and was deployed to Afghanistan, where he trained Afghani military officials.
With this military experience behind him, Coons landed a job as a planner for the Town of Poughkeepsie, where he worked for 14 years. Then, before taking the position with Dutchess County, he worked for eight years as grounds supervisor at Marist College (now Marist University). While doing these two jobs Coons also served Pine Plains as Town Supervisor from 2013 to 2019, and continued his education by enrolling in public administration courses at SUNY Albany.
Serino approached Coons about the County Parks position last September. Before accepting the post he asked her if she knew he was a registered Democrat. Serino, a Republican, told Coons that she was only looking for the right person to do the job and that he was her choice.
An avid hiker and bicyclist, the 58-year-old Coons may now have landed his perfect job.