KPPRD has new leaders

William Dietz, KP News

With the resignation of Nancy Lind from the Key Peninsula Parks and Recreation board (see related article), Vice Chair Mike Salatino stepped up to become chair pro-tem.

“I’m sorry to see her resign from the board,” he said about Lind’s departure. “She’s been an active member for many years and it’s always a shame when someone steps down and decides to move on.”

When asked if he agreed with the letter from the metro district formation committee that sought to postpone public discussion of the proposed Wauna post office restoration until after the May election, Salatino said, “Yes, and it passed unanimously,” referring to the vote by the board.

He also indicated that “if it’s created, the metropolitan park board will be the most important thing that the (existing) board has worked on in years…because it will provide us with perpetual funding from existing tax revenues already being paid to the county to fund zoo-trek.”

As for the animosity that surrounds the board, Salatino says, “A few people on the north end of the Key Peninsula in the area around the (Wauna) building want it torn down. And a few people on the sound end of the Peninsula want it restored. I think with time some sort of compromise could be worked but I may not be a commissioner by then. But the metropolitan park proposal is more important than my job.”

He said he didn’t know if the rifts can be healed. “I do know that I don’t want that issue (the Wauna building) to kill the most important thing to the park district, and that’s the (metropolitan park) district.”

When asked to comment on how his leadership of the park board will differ from Lind’s, Salatino said, “Nancy and I worked together all the way back to the fair days. I do things differently. How? We’re just different. That’s all I can say.”

Anyone interested in filling the vacancy created by Lind’s resignation should submit a resume to Salatino. The board will vote on a new member at the next regular meeting of the park commission.

At a previous KPPRD meeting, on Jan. 12, Commissioners Dick Grandquist and Pat Medvekus stood down, while Ross Bischoff and Jerry Schick were sworn in. Bischoff is a retired teacher and Schick works as a fiber optics and computer-networking technician. Assuming KPPRD continues to be structured the way it is, Bischoff and Schick will serve until 2007, John Glennon and Salatino until 2005.