Jake Rape of Zelienople rides in the Zelienople Memorial Skate Park in 2021. Zelienople Community Park, where the skate park is located, is now under the auspices of the borough after the borough assumed operational control over the park from the volunteer parks board at the beginning of 2022. Butler Eagle file photo

ZELIENOPLE — The transition of the park operations from a volunteer board to the borough government has much potential, borough manager Don Pepe said Tuesday.

Zelienople took over the day-to-day management of parks and recreation from the parks board at the beginning of 2022, and Pepe said the transition has gone smoothly.

In fact, Pepe said, the borough recently hired a director of parks and recreation, Jason Mentel, who will begin April 11.

“He was part of the Cranberry Township parks and recreation program,” Pepe said. “I’m looking forward to him coming on board."

Once on board, Mentel will be responsible for the operation of Zelienople parks and “any other recreation activities we can generate,” Pepe said.

Pepe said he sees Mentel, who currently serves as Cranberry’s facilities and special events coordinator, as a good candidate to help fulfill Zelienople’s goals for the parks’ future.

"We look forward to doing more programming, year-round programming if at all possible, so he'll be responsible for setting up the new department and making sure all those things work,“ Pepe said.

Outside the new director, Pepe said, the borough’s work with transitioning the parks board’s responsibility back to the government has been “interesting.”

“I mean that not in an ironic or sarcastic way,” Pepe said. “We've had to do some things that we've never had to do before, ... but we're setting it up our way, and a lot of the agreements that were done with the volunteer park board are not going to be in place the same way.”

In addition to the day-to-day operations, the borough is also responsible for more behind-the-scenes tasks.

“It's all the agreements with the various associations to use the ballfields that have to be maintained and managed, and then, of course, making sure the entire park is safe and managed well and cleaned, which we've never had to do before,” Pepe said.

Despite the additional workload, Zelienople residents should benefit from the government’s administration of parks and recreation in the borough, the manager said.

“It's not something that we've done, and I want to make sure that we do it right,” Pepe said.