Jeff Janda departs Berwyn Park District after 23-year run

BERWYN – It's around 6 p.m. on a Wednesday and Jeff Janda strolls into Connie's Family Restaurant, a cozy neighborhood joint near the railroad tracks on South Harlem Avenue. This place, Janda said, is one of his mother's favorite spots, and they come here often to catch up over homestyle meals.

Getting here that night – to this restaurant, back into his hometown – from his new job in Streamwood was a haul. It’s about a 45-minute commute, and that’s without traffic. But Janda is a dedicated Berwynite. He loves every inch of his city. He’s a fast talker, a hard worker, and even though he just got off work, he doesn’t mind talking about it. In fact, Janda calls his recent retirement from the Berwyn Park District a search for a change of pace.

“Hardest decision I had to make,” Janda, 51, said after taking a sip from his cup of coffee. “I could tell you where every blade of grass was.

“My mom still lives here, so I’m here a lot,” he continued. “But I’m at the age where it’s like I’ve been here. If you count all my time [at the park district], it’s like 35 years. And it’s like I’ve been here. I’m still young enough to keep working, but I’ve been here more than most people work a career. Does that make sense? It was time to try something different.”

Since 1996, Janda had served as the Berwyn Park District’s executive director, but to him, that’s all just a formality. The 23-year run doesn’t include his fondest memories of playing at Proksa Park, nor does it factor in his volunteer work as a child or seasonal employment as a high school and college student. Janda even remembers helping out when Smirz Park at West 34th Street and Highland Avenue was built in the late 1970s.

To this day, Proksa Park remains the largest among the 12 parks and greenspaces in the Berwyn Park District. And Janda, along with his team, have spent decades trying to maintain, redevelop and cultivate these places for play.

“I put them right up there with schools,” said Janda, now the executive director at the Streamwood Park District. “They’re the glue that holds the community together.”

He explained further that there’s more to parks than meets the eye. Parks, which vary in size, are made up of amenities such as playgrounds fit for children of different ages, swimming pools, fields and courts, garden plots and community centers. They require regular maintenance, grant funding and staff to operate, all of which are factors that determine the parks’ longevity.

“There’s a reality. We have limited resources,” Janda said, as he briefly talked about the future of Freedom Park. Early last month, the Berwyn Park District announced via Facebook that an aging playground at Freedom Park was going to be closed.

That playground, which is meant for children between 5 and 12 years old, was no longer deemed safe, and the park district was unable to secure the grant funding needed for proper repairs. Though it was tough to part ways with that playground, Janda said that when it comes to protecting families, especially children, the decision becomes easier.

While park district staff has begun to remove the rest of the playground’s remnants, Janda saw a bit of light peek through that sad story. A local couple started a fundraising campaign to pull in more awareness to the playground’s needs.

"We're able to take the situation and get people involved," he said about Michael and Jennifer Yates, a pair of Berwyn parents who initiated the GoFundMe page.

Taking another swig from his coffee cup, Janda spoke about his proudest moments with the park district, one of which includes the soccer field at Freedom Park.

“I meet people out in Aurora or in the Naperville areas, and they would tell me, ‘You work for Berwyn?’” he said with a wide smile. “They wanted to play under the lights at Freedom Park. They wanted to come here to play [with] the traveling teams. It was just phenomenal.”

Other highlights involve annual holiday events such as the popular All Hallow’s Eve and Easter egg hunt, as well as the installation of Karban Dog Park, an off-leash area designed for dogs to run, roam, fetch and meet other dogs.

“I’ll be honest with you,” Janda said. “I had been so used to not having pets in the park, I was kind of like, ‘Why change it?’”

After a community survey revealed that residents sought an option to bring their dogs to the park, “the parks are full of people more now than I’ve ever seen before,” he said.

And just one more thing: this April, Proksa Park was awarded a Level 1 Accreditation by the ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program and the Morton Arboretum. This particular accomplishment signifies Janda and his staff’s effort to conserve and preserve Proksa Park’s natural elements.

As Janda reflects on his service, he can’t help but become speechless when he thinks of his last days at the park district. Last month, the city of Berwyn celebrated his long career by dubbing Oct. 18 as “Jeff Janda Day” and renaming the corner of 30th Street and Wisconsin Avenue as “Janda’s Junction.”

It was during that celebration that Janda realized he was part of something bigger.

“When you look at the park, you see so many of my visions – the visions that have gone from thoughts to completion,” he said, as he extended his gratitude to the many people he worked with and those who mentored him. “I’d been phenomenally lucky, totally lucky.”

Looking ahead, Janda knows his journey is not over quite yet. With more than 40 parks that serve a community with roughly 40,000 residents, Janda knows there’s more ground to cover at the Streamwood Park District.

“It’s the best job in the world,” he said.