New Pound Ridge rec super is in familiar waters

Melissa Farella

By THANE GRAUEL

Melissa Farella often brings her young daughter to the Pound Ridge Town Park playground, where she herself played growing up.

The faded painted metal equipment and compacted wood mulch surfacing are past their prime. The playground is due for a major overhaul and Farella will play a large role in its future. 

Her life has come full circle. The Pound Ridge native, who joined the town’s swim team at 8 and took a town lifeguard job at 15, is now its Parks and Recreation supervisor.

In between came years of competitive swimming, coaching posts, college in Buffalo and at SUNY Purchase, and other jobs, including recreation leader in White Plains.

“I love working here, and I think that I always wanted to come back to Pound Ridge,” Farella said during a recent interview at the Town Park, Pound Ridge’s centerpiece recreational property. “A lot of people that I grew up with didn’t.”

Many area suburbs have trouble keeping middle generations in town, and Pound Ridge is no different. Most of its population is young families or those of retirement age. People in their 30s are the smallest demographic by far.

Farella seems just fine with that. She noted that she graduated from Fox Lane High School with the town’s fire chief, Vincent Zafonte, who works for the Highway Department and is the town’s cemetery commissioner.

“We’re one of few in our graduating class that are still in Pound Ridge, who decided to come back and buy a home and work for the town,” Farella said. “So, it’s been really cool to kind of experience that with him.”

Also, she said, the department hired a recreation assistant, Abigail Brady, who has worked for the department since age 15, including as head lifeguard, pool director and swim coach. “We’re really excited to have her,” Farella said.

Farella said that after years of coaching competitive swimming, she wanted to make an impact beyond the pool. Former Recreation Superintendent Dave Goldberg talked to her about opportunities to serve her community through recreation. 

“I worked with Dave for a very long time, and he taught me a lot of things about the Rec Department,” Farella said. “That’s what drove me into the recreation field.”

Farella’s family has lived in town for generations. She has former fire chiefs on both her mother’s and father’s sides. Her great-great-grandfather, Ernest Schelling, was the first fire chief in Pound Ridge and owned Schelling’s Market.

Pound Ridge is a small town, people-wise, with only about 5,000 residents, and the park is one of the places central to life there. It has a pool, covered pavilions, the playground, exercise areas, ballfields, a gaga pit, trails and a small pond. The pond freezes in winter and draws skaters, and this past summer was visited by a pair of river otters. The Town Park is home to several community events, the town’s summer camp, and Fourth of July fireworks.

The Parks and Recreation Department also oversees the historic Conant Hall and Sachs Park.

Farella had been a recreation coordinator at the department, and was promoted after the death in May of her predecessor, Andrea Russo. They worked closely together for three years, bringing new events and programs.

“Abby and I are excited to continue to build on that,” Farella said.

Farella was enthusiastically appointed to the top job by the Town Board on Oct. 1. Immediately after the unanimous vote, she was hit with questions about the Town Park playground project, which needed the board’s acceptance of a grant.

The town’s grant coordinator, Christeen Dur, has had a string of successes bringing in money for such projects.

“We’re a small town with a small population,” Farella said. “Our budget isn’t that big and, you know, we do a lot with what we have. So, the grants are definitely huge. A lot of towns just leave money on the table.”

At the Town Park, grant money helped replace a pool liner and build a new structure.

The playground there will be a big focus for the department in coming months. The goal is to have the playground open in time for summer.

“And then we want to move into the tennis courts, the basketball courts, and a new roof at Conant Hall,” Farella said of the department’s priorities.

Town Supervisor Kevin Hansan said this week that helping local people develop their careers is a good thing. 

“It’s great, she grew up in town,” Hansan said, noting Farella’s days as a camp counselor on up.

“We try to hire local as much as possible,” he said, also mentioning Zafonte and the town’s newest highway superintendent, Joseph Capalbo, who grew up in Mount Kisco.