SWAINTON — He enjoyed a cup of coffee at his desk the last day on the job as county parks director March 29, but Dominic Rosselli won’t be just sitting back and taking it easy despite retirement.
Rosselli turned 61 on March 30, the day after he ended a 30-year career with the county Parks Department.
There are some projects to keep him busy around the house, Rosselli told the Herald as he sat near a window, with a view of the park that he has seen change since January 1977.
As of Monday, he started a part-time job for a company based at the county airport.
He said he will be servicing airplanes and working in customer service with private air-craft owners. Rosselli serviced helicopters while in the Army, so he’s back to doing some-thing he knows well.
Born and raised in Philadelphia, he moved to this county in 1971 when he lost his job at Boeing Vertol in Eddystone, Pa.
Rosselli joined a friend who was doing optical lab work.
His daughter Marlene was just 1 year old when he and wife, Patricia, settled in West Wildwood. His son, Frank, was later born in this county.
After five years working in the optical field, the company moved out of state, but Rosselli did not want to leave the county.
He was offered a job as a laborer for the park, and resettled to the Bayside Village section of Lower Township, where he and his wife still call home.
There was no zoo then. Where it is located “was just woods,” Rosselli said.
The park was mostly visited by locals, who used the playgrounds and playing field, located on Route 9 and designated County Park East, and had barbecues or picnics in the sheltered areas.
There were weekly concerts back then, Rosselli said, that were either performed from a “showmobile” trailer, or at a band shell that was near the lake at the front entrance.
He was a groundskeeper: raking, cutting grass, raking leaves and cleaning buildings.
The zoo opened in 1978, after the county received assistance from a federal jobs program to pay workers to build it. These workers also built the gazebo on the lake.
When those extra employees came on board, Rosselli said, he was asked to manage an in-house security force of eight of those workers to provide park security at all times.
He also advanced to the position of painter, and that job kept him busy painting buildings, and drawing lines on athletic courts and playing fields.
He continued to be given more responsibilities and supervision, he said, by then park di-rector Philip Judyski, now president of the county Board of Taxation.
Rosselli became a general foreman in 1984, and in 1989 was made assistant director.
He continued in that position after former freeholder William Sturm replaced Judyski in 1999, and until Sturm left in 2003.
Not only did the directorship change that year, Rosselli said, that was when responsibility for the park and the zoo were separated.
As he took up the role of park director, Dr. Hubert Paluch, a veterinarian took over as zoo director.
His department was — and still is — responsible for ground maintenance for the zoo, while Paluch has full supervision of animal care, Rosselli said.
In his opinion, separating the two was “a good thing.”
“It would have been overbearing,” he said. With two directors, each can be concerned with the focus of his role, he added.
Ground maintenance for the zoo is more critical in winter, particularly dealing with snow and ice, Rosselli said.
“We have to make sure the weather doesn’t affect zoo operations,” he said. “It’s not visi-tors we are concerned about, it’s the animals that have to be cared for every day, regardless of weather.”
Right now, workers are removing what is left of tons of leaves that fall each year, along with dead trees and other debris to get the park ready for its busiest season.
His staff included four office workers and 17 others in the park system. The latter gains added workers as seasonal employees are hired each year for a six-month period.
His typical day? Just make sure everything was running well, he said, and that there are no problems.
In summer, staff helps the influx of people “usher in, and point them in the right direc-tion,” said Rosselli. The main thing is to keep traffic going.
Annually, close to a half a million people visit the parks, he said.
While he was assistant director, he watched the park system grow from the two sites here to include property in Del Haven and Palermo.
The 1,500 acres in Del Haven were purchased in the early ‘70s, Rosselli said, and what is now County Park South was built in the early ‘90s.
The Palermo tract was a bequest around the same time, and County Park North, Cameron Wildlife Sanctuary was opened in the donor’s name and remains in the same natural state today as it was then.
This year the county’s $133 million budget lists $1,360,807 for the department’s salary and wages, and $156,345 for other expenses. There’s also $1,725,662 budgeted for operat-ing expenses and $241,700 for capital improvements.
Concessions at the park yield a return of $250,000, which goes into the general fund, Rosselli said. The money donated by the public goes into a special fund, and then is dedi-cated to the needs of the zoo and its animals, he said.
Looking back, Rosselli said he has enjoyed a good relationship with freeholders and county administrators and other directors. He said he thought the camaraderie between them “be-came outstanding,” after he was made director.
Was he responsible for this?
“I always got along with people,” Rosselli said, “I treat them the way I like to be treated. My relationship with other department heads, the county administrator and freeholders couldn’t be better.”
Recognizing his 30 years of service March 27, Freeholder Director Daniel Beyel said Rosselli’s career with the park department was “remarkable,” and alluded to a time Rosselli had to go on “a buffalo hunt in north Jersey.”
“I want to express my gratitude for letting me work there,” Rosselli told him in response.
What will he miss the most? His co-workers, Rosselli said.
One of them, Michael Laffey, a division director for the department, will be taking Rosselli’s place as director.
Since he has now taken a part-time job to stay active, why did Rosselli retire?
To have more time to visit his daughter and grandchildren in North Carolina, he said.
Contact Cote at (609) 886-8600 Ext 31 or: ccote@cmcherald.com