County administrator recovering

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Parran was airlifted to Georgetown University Hospital in November after suffering a brain aneurysm, and underwent brain surgery there.

County business, of course, has had to continue despite his absence, but officials and staff members said that while things are going fine, it isn't the same without Parran.

County Finance and Budget Director Terry Shannon now performs the duties of acting county administrator as well, but she said everything is running smoothly despite the added responsibilities.

"I think things are functioning well," she said. "One of the strengths the county has is we have good, solid, management — most of which has been in place for a number of years. I think that's helped us continue operations in a consistent manner, being able to provide the services that we need to provide. Really, it would come from the commissioners' viewpoint more than my own but I give a lot of credit to department heads in managing operations well. That makes my job filling in for Doug easier."

Wilson Freeland stepped into Parran's other pair of shoes as he is now acting chief of general services. Like Shannon, he said there was no great change because each department already knows what it is supposed to do.

"Actually, when Doug became acting county administrator, most of our divisions ran pretty smoothly on their own anyway. It hasn't been any great task to carry on. We still do the same things that we were charged to do," Freeland said.

Freeland saw Parran a few weeks ago during a brief visit to the county offices.

"He looked good. He still has a long road to recover but physically he was doing really good. He's always been a fighter and tenacity is one of his assets so we expect him to make a full recovery," Freeland said.

Jerry Clark (R), a member of the Calvert County Board of County Commissioners, said Parran is "sorely missed. I miss him not only as a colleague at the courthouse but also as a friend." He is recovering slowly but surely, Clark added.

"Douglas has come a long way and he still has somewhat of a battle in front of him, but I'm pretty confident that he's trying as hard as he possibly can to overcome any problems he still has. I'm pretty confident that over a period of time we'll see him recover pretty much totally," he said.

County Commissioner Susan Shaw (R) said she hasn't seen Parran during his recovery but looks forward to speaking with him again.

"I miss him terribly, because I miss his sarcastic sense of humor for one thing. I miss his get-it-done attitude. I would say, ‘Do you think we could do such-and-such?' and he'd say, ‘That's easy, we can get that done.' I miss his common sense. He has a very broad knowledge and experience base, everything from construction to the intricacies of banking, just a very broad knowledge base, and that's very helpful, so like other people I've been hoping and praying he would recover," Shaw said.

Ultimately, Shaw said she hopes he returns to work.

"Obviously, that would be the ultimate miracle, if he were able to come back to work," she said. "I don't know if he'll want to because it's a very stressful job. … But I'm hoping he'll recover to the point where he could make that decision."

emitrano@somdnews.com