Thorpe Road resident Karen Peirce was selected by a unanimous vote to fill a vacant seat on the Park & Recreation Commission during a Sept. 8 joint meeting of the commission and the Select Board.
Peirce will fill the remainder of the three-year term of former Park & Rec Chair Chris Gerstel, who resigned in June after pleading not guilty in federal court to 17 counts related to allegedly stealing funds from Needham Baseball and Softball.
Peirce was chosen from a field of eight applicants that had been narrowed down to three finalists after a selection process managed by Select Board member Josh Levy and Park & Rec Chair Michelle Geddes, who formed an appointment sub-committee to execute the process.
Levy said the applicant field was a strong one but that Peirce stood out, an opinion Geddes said was shared by the four commissioners.
“She’s coming with a lot of experience, direct Park and Rec experience,” Geddes said of Peirce, who spent 15 years working for the Needham Park & Rec department as assistant director before departing to take a similar position in Newton.
In her interview on Aug. 24, Peirce said a role on the commission was “something I’ve been thinking about for a really long time, something I always said I wanted to do but never really had time because I was working full time for many years.”
“But life has changed a little bit,” she said, noting she no longer works full-time and feels she can dedicate the time needed to serve on the commission.
“She’ll be able to come in and understand things right away,” said longtime Park & Rec commissioner Cindy Chaston. “She knows the department inside and out.”
Peirce will serve out the balance of Gerstel’s three-year term, which expires in April. She can choose to run for the seat in the April town election but would not be designated an incumbent on the ballot.
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