Photo courtesy of Katelyn Elaine Photography
Chad and Lyndsey Baxley and their children, 5-year-old Bowen and 6-month-old Ansley. Lyndsey Baxley was appointed to the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board.
The average tenure among current members of the Hoover Parks and Recreation Board is 10 years.
With that comes age and wisdom, Hoover Council President John Lyda said. So he was glad to get a youthful perspective with the appointment of Lyndsey Baxley to the park board this week, he said. It has been a while since the board has had a young mother, Lyda said.
The Hoover City Council on Monday chose Baxley, a mother with two children ages 5 and younger, to fill the spot recently vacated by Steve Townsend at the end of his six-year term on Sept. 30.
Baxley is an occupational therapist who works with special needs children at Green Valley and Gwin elementary schools. She has been in occupational therapy for almost eight years and been employed by the Hoover school system for three years.
“I’m very excited for this opportunity,” Baxley said of her appointment to the park board.
She reached out to Lyda about 1½ years ago and expressed an interest in the park board if a position ever came open, so she was delighted when she learned there would be a vacancy this year, she said.
She grew up with an appreciation for public service and giving back to the community because her father was a Selma police officer, she said.
She also greatly appreciates the park and recreation amenities that Hoover has to offer and would like to help make sure they are properly maintained and marketed, she said.
Her husband, Chad, is the T-ball commissioner at Shades Mountain Park, and their oldest son, 5-year-old Bowen, has played three seasons there. Bowen also took swim lessons at the Hoover Rec Center and went through the Hoover Parks and Recreation Department’s Smart Start program, which gives youngsters ages 3-5 a taste of football, basketball, T-ball and soccer.
The Baxley’s daughter, Ansley, is 6 months old, so she’s not quite old enough to hit the fields yet.
Chad also has played in the adult softball league at Spain Park since moving to the Birmingham area in 2014, and the family joined the Hoover Recreation Center in 2018. Their family also has enjoyed visiting the 350-acre Moss Rock Preserve nature park, which is owned by the city.
Lyndsey graduated from Central Christian Academy in Selma in 2007 and went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in biology from Huntingdon College in Montgomery in December 2010 and a master’s degree in occupational therapy from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in December 2013.
She met Chad while they were at Huntingdon, and he moved to the Birmingham area for a job with Alabama Power Co. in 2013. He now works for the Spire natural gas company. The couple got married in 2013 and bought their first home in Hoover in 2014 off Tyler Road. They now live in the Birchtree community and are active members at Green Valley Church, where they work in the nursery.
Lyndsey said she’s excited to join the board, get to meet everyone and learn how everything works. “I don’t want to come in like a bull in a china shop and figure I can make a bunch of decisions,” she said.
She wants to figure out what her role is supposed to be and go from there, she said.
She does think there are a lot of hidden gems in the Hoover Parks and Recreation Department and hopes she can help keep them in good shape and spread the word about them, she said.
