No stranger to planning or economic development, Rick Starks hopes to put that experience to good use as the newest member of the City-County Planning Commission of Warren County.

Starks – who retired in 2012 after a lengthy career with the Barren River Area Development District, the Tennessee Valley Authority and Warren Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. – was appointed Friday to represent Warren County on the planning commission and fill the last vacancy on the 12-member body.

A Scottsville native who has lived in Bowling Green since the early 1970s, Starks fills a vacancy created when Tim Huston moved out of Warren County.

“Because of my past experience with BRADD, the TVA and regional planning, I think I’m a good fit (for the planning commission),” Starks said. “I still have a desire to continue to serve Bowling Green and Warren County the best I can.”

Starks has a background that seems ideal for joining a commission charged with making decisions about land use and policy issues.

He served as BRADD’s regional planning and projects manager from 1972 through 1980, when he joined TVA as regional manager for community and economic development and worked in a 26-county region.

After retiring from TVA, Starks served as WRECC’s vice president of member services from 2005 through 2012.

“In all three jobs I was involved in community and economic development,” Starks said. “I got a lot of great experience at all three of those entities.”

A graduate of Western Kentucky University and the University of Oklahoma Economic Development Institute, Starks will be sworn in as a planning commission member at the body’s Aug. 6 meeting, scheduled as an online meeting because of precautions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

He will join a 12-member commission made up of four representatives each from Warren County and the city of Bowling Green and one member each from the cities of Oakland, Plum Springs, Smiths Grove and Woodburn.

In addition to Starks, the Warren County representatives are Tim Graham, Velma Runner and Christiaan Volkert.

The city of Bowling Green representatives are Greg Gay, India Unseld, Mary Vitale and Dean Warren.

Representatives from the other cities are Debbie Richey (Smiths Grove), Mary Belle Ballance (Oakland), Sandy Clark (Plum Springs) and Shannon Blackburn (Woodburn).

Starks is glad to be joining a group that he believes plays an important role.

“I’m honored to be on the planning commission because I know how vital it is,” he said. “When you have the kind of growth that Bowling Green has had, you need an organization that’s looking out for orderly growth.”