SALEM — The city’s newest parks commissioner is looking forward to serving the community in a new role.

Yeasted officially began his term as Salem parks commissioner Jan. 1 at the conclusion of former Commission Vice President Lucille Karnofel’s term. He will be a familiar face to many in Salem having previously served the community as director of the Salem Community Pantry and president of Salem Kiwanis, and being appointed to the Civil Service Commission in 2021 by then Mayor John Berlin. In 2022 Yeasted was appointed chairman of the Civil Service Commission and will continue to fulfill his position on that committee.

Yeasted is a Salem native and a 1985 Salem High School alum and earned his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice with a minor in political science from the University of Akron in 1990. When he finished his education, he took a position at the Columbiana County Court of Common Pleas with adult probation where he served until 1997, before becoming a case manager at the federal prison where he remained until his retirement in May of 2019.

“I started thinking what I wanted to do, and to get back in touch with what was going on in the city was important to me, so I started volunteering at the Salem Community Pantry and after a couple of years I became director there,” said Yeasted.

Yeasted said that he was approached by Mayor Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey about potentially taking on the new position while at city hall for his existing role with Civil Service.

“Being in and out of city hall with Civil Service Commission the mayor approached me about another commission, and I said okay. I couldn’t say no,” joked Yeasted.

Yeasted said that he never expected to find himself in his new position, but that he had a long history with the parks and was excited to become more involved. Yeasted said that he was particularly excited to become more familiar and engaged with the annual Summer Concert Series which he described as a personal favorite among the department’s annual slate of programming.

“It’s something that I never thought I’d be involved with, but the parks does so many great things in the city… I’ve always been interested in the parks; I used to be on the Salem swim team back in the day and used the pool all the time, so I really appreciated what we have here in Salem, what we offered, so I thought it was a great opportunity for me to dig deeper into the parks,” said Yeasted.

Yeasted also championed the department’s employees for nothing that they do “a lot of work with a lot less people than [he] thought they had,” and that while many residents may not know they are busy at work year round to ensure the parks are ready and safe for the enjoyment of residents every year.

“I’ve been so impressed by the amount of work that gets done by the parks with the budget that is given to them, I was not aware of a lot of the things the department does before going around all the parks and seeing the projects that have been done in the past and are being worked on in the future,” said Yeasted.

Yeasted said that right now he is still acclimating to his new position and familiarizing himself with the parks’ existing operations and needs, joking that he “was doing a lot of homework,” and that the commission’s current priorities include the renewal of the department’s 1-mill operational levy in May.

Beyond those immediate goals Yeasted said that he would like to see some renovations to the parks’ pavilions, and that he wanted to help bring more publicity to the department’s services and programming.

“Show the public more of what the parks does. When I was with the [Salem Community] Pantry it was always my goal to get something in the newspaper twice a month and I think that helps everybody,” said Yeasted. “There are good things being done that the public needs to know and be aware of. You give them a picture and show them ‘here’s what we do,’ and I think you can really see that in the parks. The upkeep of the parks is a tremendous amount of work, and I think we can really showcase that through social media.”

mahart@mojonews.com