Salem City Service/Safety Director Ken Kenst stands inside city hall, where he’s served the past nine years. He’s retiring effective Friday. (Salem News photo by Mary Ann Greier)

When Ken Kenst ends his public service to the Salem community on Friday, he’ll leave with no regrets — just a thank you to the citizens of the hometown he cherishes.

“As most people who leave a job that they love, what they say they’ll miss the most is the people they work with and that’s true in my case,” the 69-year-old city Service/Safety Director said during a recent interview about his retirement.

In his position, Kenst oversees the street department, traffic and safety, electrical department, housing, planning and zoning and the police and fire departments. That means he works closely with the people protecting the welfare and safety of the city and he’s built a lot of relationships over the years with those fellow public servants.

He’ll miss the residents, too, from people calling about leaf pickup to those complaining about their street or alley or other issue, if they had a question, he said he tried to get them an answer.

“It might not have been the answer they wanted, but they got an answer,” he said.

When asked what accomplishment gave him the most pride, he couldn’t name just one, but said he’s proud of “the overall improvement of the city, from the streets to the police department and the fire department. All the departments get along. That doesn’t happen in every city. We’re very fortunate it does here. All that makes the city improved.”

Kenst said the best part of the job was getting to work with his friend, Mayor John Berlin, a guy he met playing baseball in high school. Kenst was a Salem Quaker and Berlin a West Branch Warrior, but they played a lot of ball together on a travel team, winning the Class D State Tournament. They got reaquainted when their kids went to St. Paul School and they worked together as charter members of the St. Paul School Foundation. They also spent many years working together for the Karlis-Lowdermilk golf classic, raising money for the Salem Hall of Fame Foundation.

When Berlin won election as mayor, he was pleasantly surprised to receive an application for the job of service/safety director from Kenst. He said it was nice having someone he knew in the position. He said Kenst was highly educated and fit right in, with a great personality for working with people and earning the respect of employees. His background was accounting, project management and human resources. He had worked for Stitle Construction and Entre Computer and served on the Salem Board of Education for four years, with one year as president.

A 1968 Salem High School graduate, Kenst went on to Kent State University where he played football with the likes of Steelers great Jack Lambert, coaching legend Nick Saban and current Alliance Mayor Alan Andreani. He earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting in 1972 and later earned an Masters of Business Administration from Baldwin Wallace in Cleveland, where he lived for 10 years before moving back home to Salem where he and his high school sweetheart, Cindy, wanted to raise their family.

After 47 years of marriage, two daughters, Kristen and Kimberly, two son-in-laws and four grandsons later, they’re ready for the next phase. Cindy retired three years ago as director of Homecare Advantage and when the mayor decided to seek a third term, Kenst said he would remain, but just long enough for there to be a transition. He’s already been working with his replacement, the recently selected Joe Cappuzzello.

The Kenst grandsons range in age from 2 months to 8 years old and Ken said he and Cindy want to spend more time with them, along with the rest of their family. Plans call for them to move to a condo in the Columbus area early next year and also spend time in Florida. One daughter lives in the Columbus area and the other lives in Hudson

“I’m happy for him. I know how much he enjoys being with his family, especially his grandsons,” Berlin said.

Kenst praised Berlin’s service as mayor, saying he’s made the office and city hall accessible to all businesses and residents and “made a commitment to do everything possible to move Salem forward. I have not seen him make a decision to get a vote. He does what’s best for the city of Salem.”

Kenst liked the fact that his job was something different every day and sometimes different every hour.

“I never once in nine years regretted having to get up and go to work,” he said.

He enjoyed working on the Salem Super Cruise and said the city is fortunate to have Mick Orosz, who handles the vendors, and Gene Johnson, who handles the Cruise planning and operation. The event should be successful into the future.

His biggest disappointment was city council not giving the single trash hauler program the consideration the majority of the residents had requested. He said the contract could have been constructed in a way to give the city everything it wanted, at a reduction in cost for residents from what current trash haulers charge.

He was glad to get Franklin Street repaved this year for the residents, who had to wait a year longer for the much-needed project to get done. He’s also happy for Eighth Street getting a new surface this year.

Besides leaving his city post, Kenst is hanging up his 25-year track and cross country officiating career, saying he’ll miss the kids and watching the athletes come up through the ranks. He’s going to miss that familiarity that comes from living in one place for a long time, knowing where to get work done on the family car or who to call for a plumber.

Heck, just walking down the street and knowing most of the people in town.

That and the people, he’ll miss.

mgreier@salemnews.net