City employees retire after many years of service

Jan. 03--Generations of experience will be lost at New Castle City Hall when eight employees retire.

Those leaving include:

--Mark Kirkwood, a carpenter who retired from public works on Dec. 3 after 11 years,

--City Clerk Melinda Parenti, 44 years, whose last day on the job was Dec. 23,

--New Castle Fire Chief Mark Panella, 27 years, who retired Dec. 31.

--Firefighter James Donstan, 31 years, who retired Dec. 31.

--Firefighter Guy "Dobie" Withrow, 24 years, who retired on Dec. 31.

--Legal Assistant Alyson Joseph, 43 years, who will retire Jan. 31

--Code Enforcement worker Larry Joseph, 17 years, who will retire Jan. 31.

--Deputy City Clerk Elaine McEwen, 48 years, who will leave on March 3.

"I have never seen so many people retiring all at once, even when I worked at the hospital," said Mayor Anthony Mastrangelo, now beginning his 10th year in office.

"We're losing a lot of good people. We'll be replacing those we can and getting by as best we can."

Joseph, Parenti and McEwen -- who have worked for the city for 43, 44 and 48 years respectively -- joke that they have become "the big three women of city hall."

"When I came to work here, Eleanor Caroluk in the treasurer's office, Mary Biondi in purchasing and Betty Fortuna in parks and code enforcement were the big three, the ladies who came to work at city hall and stayed on and on. Now it's us," Parenti said.

MELINDA PARENTI

Parenti came on as a 17-year-old New Castle Business College work-study student and was hired full-time a year later. Serving first as a "floater," filling in in various offices, she settled first in the per capita tax office then the wage tax office, where she was one of five women. In 1984, she became secretary to Mayor Dale Yoho, returning to the treasurer's office in 1989. For the past 25 years she has been city clerk.

She said she has enjoyed working with the public.

"I've seen it all, done it all and I'm grateful for the opportunity to have worked here," she said. "I have absolutely loved the job. People would come in with a problem and I'd help resolve them."

In her retirement, Parenti will teach yoga at Infinity Flow Yoga Studio on Butler Avenue and as part of the Butler County Community College Lifelong Learning program.

For 25 years, Parenti said she taught tap, jazz and ballet dance, retiring six years ago. Now a certified yoga instructor who focuses on "gentle flow yoga" and its restorative, relaxing aspects, she has found a new passion.

"I love it and there is always more to learn," she said.

She also is hoping to give more time to her grandson, Salvatore Innocenzi, 13.

When New Castle City Council members said at Parenti's final meeting Dec. 23 that she would be hard to replace, they weren't kidding. Four people will do the jobs she formerly held: Maurene Ambrosia will take on her "accounts payable" duties, Brandi Wallace her "accounts receivable" duties, business administrator Stephanie Dean will serve as city clerk and Joshua Latore of finance will serve as New Castle Pension Board secretary.

"I walked out of here after 44 years, six months and eight days," she said. "It doesn't feel as if it's been that long."

ALYSON & LARRY JOSEPH

Alyson Joseph, a paralegal for the city solicitor, also handles all of the city's insurance programs.

Her retirement plans will involve her husband, Larry, who is also retiring, her children, grandchildren and parents, Angela and Lou Ross, who are now 85 and 90 years old.

"They live alone. Dad still drives but there are things they can't do," she said. "Looking after them will be my main purpose for retiring at this time."

Joseph began at city hall in 1973 working for Recreation Director Darrell Dess. She went on to the Police Youth Bureau working with Frank Pidro and Jerry Ginocchi, joined Lillian Reef in the solicitor's office then went to the police department where she worked with John Audino microfilming records.

Joseph said her career took a break when she left to have her children, Courtney and Larry. She returned in 1979 to the solicitor's office.

"Lillian had been in a bad car accident and retired that year," she said.

Looking back, Joseph agrees her time at city hall has been fun.

"We're like a family here, we've all grown up together. We've had good times. This has been a good place to be."

Since October she has been training her replacement, Kata Matthews.

She said she is thankful for the flexible schedules extended to her when she had to do things for and with her children and now her parents.

Joseph said she gave retirement a lot of thought.

"I've gone back and forth on this. But I woke up one morning and made my decision. That lifted a huge stress from me. I knew it was the right decision. I've gotten more excited about it as the time gets closer and I look forward to leaving and doing nothing -- no hustle. No rush Everything I do now is in a rush. It will be nice to take my time and easier on mom and dad. I'll be able to spend time with them without having to rush off to get back to work."

Larry Joseph began in the city code department in 1999.

His retirement plans are a little more to the point."I'm waiting to get to the golf course in the spring."

ELAINE MCEWEN

Elaine McEwen has big plans for her retirement.

"It involves never setting another alarm clock again," she said. "I'll do what I want to on my time. I won't have to runs to get things done, rush through the grocery store. It will be nice to call my time my own."

McEwen, who plans to retire March 3, started at city hall in 1969 in the tax office while working toward her associate degree in business administration and accounting at the New Castle Business College.

"I worked part-time for two years on a work study program, then (former city business administrator) Larry Worth learned that I could type and do shorthand. I was hired full-time as his confidential secretary," she said. 'If you count the part-time years, I've been here for 48 years."

She began her reign in the city clerk's office in 1976, to help former city clerk Jack Fritz to organize the office.

"I got the title deputy city clerk because I might have had to sign documents in Jack's absence," she said. "I've had the title ever since."

McEwen said she worked for six mayors beginning with Carl Cialella, the first to serve under the Optional Third Class City Charter Mayor and Council Plan A, also called a strong mayor form of government.

Her retirement plans include continuing some of what she is doing now -- serving as an independent contractor as the Lawrence County Airport Authority's recording secretary and doing bookkeeping, accounting and grant writing for them, and doing accounting work for Bill's Bake Shop in Mahoningtown.

When McEwen's retirement plans became known in November, Ciara Buck was hired to replace her.

"This job is diverse and I've always liked that about it," she said. "I wouldn't have wanted to deal with numbers all day every day.

"This office controls all city council records," she said. "We have the city ordinances, resolutions, agendas, and update the codified ordinance books. I'm teaching her what she needs to know about transcribing council minutes, assigning resolution and ordinance numbers, advertising meetings and ordinances, informing the mayor and council of upcoming authority vacancies and keeping ordinance books up to date.

"She's taking notes and I have a 'procedures' book,' " McEwen said. "There's a lot of history in this office."

McEwen said her time at city hall took her from IBM typewriters to word processors then computers.

"I like computers and technology and have seen so many changes," she said.

McEwen also oversaw the scanning of all city ordinances from the 1800s, when New Castle was a borough and still part of Mercer County through the present.

"There are more than 8,000 ordinances," she said. "The really old ones are hand written in script."

She said the city purchased a scanner and interns scanned them in, pulling 100-plus- year-old books covered in 100-year-old dust.

"These are open to the public if anyone wants to read them,"McEwen said. "Generally, the only people who look at them are engineers working for PennDOT, Penn Power, or gas drilling companies."

The city's first ordinance, which dealt with paving, was passed by New Castle Borough Council on Feb. 2,1854, and signed by the chief burgess on Feb. 10, 1854.

MARK PANELLA

In September, New Castle Fire Chief Mark Panella announced that he would be retiring after 31 years in the New Castle Fire Department. He leftDec. 31.

"I've done it all from fireman to driver to assistant chief and now chief," said Panella, who joined the fire department in May 1985.

His plans for retirement include finding a job.

"I'm 57 years old," he said. "I'm too young to sit around."

Still active in his family's Panella Brothers bar on Hamilton Street, Panella said his new job could involve cooking but it also could be something else.

"I don't know what's out there," he said. "I'll take my time and find something that I really want to do."

Saying that he doesn't really want to retire at this time, Panella said his decision, "is in the best interests of me and the city. This really is the time for me to go. But I hate to do it. This is the best job that there is."

Panella's replacement, Eric Perry, has 28 years experience with the department, having joined in September 1988.

Perry will continue to supervise the city's code enforcement department, which Panella has done for some time.

"Lately we've been working to see about expanding this," he said. "Panella said he has met with the Sharon Fire Chief to learn what is done in that community.

"Our goal is to do the best for the city, to improve the city and to save it money," he said. "We're seeing what others are doing and if we can do the same."

With three retirements at this time -- Panella, Donston and Withrow -- the dynamics of the department will change, Panella said.

"We had 21 full-time fire fighters, six part-timers and the chief. We expect that two part-timers will be promoted to full-time and four more part-time fire fighters are expected to be hired. This will leave us with a department of 20 full-timers, eight part-timers and the chief."

Mastrangelo said the addition of more part-time fire fighters will help the city's bottomline by reducing overtime costs.

The city paid about $292,000 in 2016. That figure has been cut to $150,000 in the 2017 budget.

The mayor said he expects to lose another public works worker in March. He said seven existing workers are interested in replacing Kirkwood as a carpenter.

"One will be selected and their slot will not be filled," he said. "Nor do I expect to fill the retirement slot we expect in March."

(Email: [email protected])

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