Salem Parks Commission names a new Park Foreman

SALEM--The Salem Parks Commission named a new Parks Foreman in its meeting Wednesday.

"It feels nice to move up, and hopefully I can continue to make the parks a safe, enjoyable place to be," said new Parks Foreman Wes Bryan.

The department has elevated one of its own in Wes Bryan, who has served as a Parks Laborer since March 2022. Parks Director Jacob Logan said that the position received three applicants, one in-house from Bryan, and two external applicants, and following both phone and interviews Bryan was determined to be the best candidate and commissioners voted unanimously to approve the hire.

Bryan is a Salem native and 2007 Salem High School alum. After graduation Bryan served in the United States Marine Corps for five years prior to returning to Salem and taking a position with Arrow Disposal, where he remained for nine years prior to joining the Parks Department.

Bryan said that in his time with Arrow he learned and developed maintenance skills which have since been honed in his time with the Parks Department, and that he looks forward to continuing to meet the department's high maintenance standards, as well as working to continue bringing improvements to Salem's parks "down the road." Amongst the projects Bryan said he'd like to tackle in the future were updates to the area surrounding the duck pond at Waterworth Memorial Park, and upgrades to the dog park.

"I think there's a lot of things that could be added and upgraded there to improve the experience for the dogs and their owners," said Bryan.

This comes in the wake of current Parks Foreman Jim Grimm's announcement that he would be retiring in the commission's February meeting after over a decade in the position, having served in the position for nine years prior to briefly leaving the department in April of 2017, returning to his position, which was not filled at that time, within less than a year when the commission voted unanimously to re-hire him in February of 2018. While Grimm's retirement officially begins May 17, he's taking his remaining vacation prior to his departure, so his final day of work with the department will be Friday.

Grimm said that everything he'd worked towards during his time with the department had been done for the betterment of Salem's parks, and the Salem community at large.

"It was all about the parks, working to make a friendly relaxing environment and a place of solitude to enjoy God's creations for Salem and the surrounding communities," said Grimm.

Grimm also had a lengthy list of people, community organizations, and city departments, that he thanked as part of his final commission meeting prior to his retirement.

"Since this is my last meeting there's a couple people, I wanted to say thank you to, the current commissioners, and those from when I was first hired, Steve Faber, Terry Hoopes, and Ken Schroom who has since passed, I'd like to thank them for the opportunity they gave me when they hired me and for supporting me and the same to the current commissioners for everything they've done. I also want to thank the many clubs and groups that have volunteered through the parks, the Rotary Club, and the Kiwanis, they've supported me, and gave me ideas for projects, and worked towards making many of them a reality, it's been a pleasure working with all those committees," said Grimm, "the beautification Committee Karen Carter and Jennifer Brown, they work so hard downtown and have complimented the parks and supported the parks, the eagle scouts and their projects, Key Bank, Shane Franks who was a wonderful guy to work with, and all the city department, every one of them stepped up and worked together with us. The city of Salem, Mayor [Cyndi Baronzzi Dickey] and the Service Safety Director [Joe Cappuzzello], the Salem Community Foundation and Melissa Costa and her husband Tim were always great to work with and very encouraging. Jacob [Logan], and [Recreation Supervisor] Kelli [Pastore], I know you guys are going to get in there and get stuff done. Thank you all so much."

Each of the three commissioners expressed their gratitude to Grimm for his contributions to the Parks Department in turn, with Parks Commission President John Panezott emphasizing the high esteem held by the community for Grimm and noting that he considered Grimm a close friend.

"All I hear everywhere I go is 'man that Jim Grimm is something else, he's quite a guy,' you go down to city hall and talk to them and they say, 'boy Jim Grimm keeps everything so nice and clean' and I say we're really fortunate to have him. Not just that, but we've had some talks that have been very inspirational I hope not just to me but to you to, and you've not only been our foreman, but you've also been a super friend," said Panezott.

These sentiments were echoed by Commission Vice-President Lucile Karnofel, and Commissioner Lori Colian, who emphasized the lasting impact of Grimm's contributions, and the amount they had learned from Grimm during his time with the department in turn.

"I concur, and I certainly appreciate everything you've done for our parks, your vision, and everything that you said you'd like to do and got accomplished, it's a lasting effect," said Karnofel.

"I know I haven't been around as long, but it's been amazing seeing and listening and learning because there's so many things you do with landscaping and nature programming," said Colian.

The Parks Commission will meet next 5 p.m. May 29.