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Pinkard retires as chief of Mill Creek Park police
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Sitting in his office, L. Nathaniel Pinkard is retiring from Mill Creek Police as the former Chief.
By Denise Dick
Park commissioners received about 40 resumes for the chief position.
YOUNGSTOWN — Being a police officer in the Mill Creek Park Police Department isn’t like being a cop in other jurisdictions.
“It’s a unique position,” said L. Nathaniel Pinkard, who retired last week as the department’s chief. “You’re a law enforcement officer in every sense of the word, but you’re also charged with looking out for the park.”
Pinkard, 58, of Youngstown, started with the department in 1980. He moved to the park district after being laid off from the city police department.
“I came to the park district, and I’m still here 28 years later,” the chief said.
He worked as a park police sergeant from 1981 to 1983, lieutenant from 1983 to 1984, assistant chief from 1985 to 1992 and was named chief in 1992.
The Rayen School graduate plans to spend his new-found free time traveling, playing jazz and gospel music on the saxophone, taking pictures, golfing, working around the house and devoting more time to the community boards on which he serves. He serves as a deacon at Tabernacle Baptist Church.
Though he won’t be there day-to-day, Pinkard still plans to visit park facilities and attend events.
He says he’ll miss the park district and employees of both the police department and the park district most.
“At times it’s the greatest job in the world,” Pinkard said.
You get to be out of the office, enjoying nature while at work.
“Sometimes I would think, ‘I’m actually getting paid for this,’” he said.
Watching the park change from fall to winter to spring to summer is one of the things he most enjoyed.
Virginia Dailey, park commissioners president, says Pinkard will be missed.
“He’s been an excellent police chief,” she said. “He’s spent his career at the park, and the park is the better for it.”
He’ll be difficult to replace, Dailey said.
Commissioners received about 40 resumes from people interested in the chief’s job. They expect to begin interviewing prospective candidates the week of June 15.
The department employs 14 full-time officers including the chief and 20 part-time officers.
Pinkard said he and his wife, Camille, always hoped to retire early but knew they couldn’t afford to do it at the same time.
She retired a couple of years ago from her position as an administrator in Warren City Schools. He planned to follow the next year but stayed an extra year.
The couple has one adult son, Leonard Jr., and two grandchildren, Leonard III and Darshane, all of Columbus.
When talking with new recruits, Pinkard said he would instruct them that the incidents they would encounter would fall into one of three categories: People vs. park, park vs. people or conflicts between park visitors.
People vs. park occurs when someone is causing damage to park property. Park vs. people is when some hazard is present. Officers face each of the three categories in about equal measure.
He lists as a high point of his tenure the park district’s expanding in 1989 from a township park to a metropark.
The low point occurred in 2004 when three teenagers died in a car accident when the car in which they were riding jumped a curb in the park and struck two boulders alongside the road.
Pinkard spent his early childhood in Diamond, Ohio, moving with his family in 1961 to the city. He doesn’t have a lot of childhood memories of time spent in the park.
“I basically got to know it when I came to work here,” he said.
During that time, he developed a particular affection for the gorge area, the tract between the flats and Lanterman’s Mill.
“It was created by glacier,” Pinkard said. “I like the water, natural rock formations, the trails with the creek — I find it very peaceful.”
denise_dick@vindy.com