After working as the Lynnfield Center Water District director for five years, John Scenna was appointed as the town’s Department of Public Works director by the Select Board in June.
“DPW plays a huge role in a community… behind the scenes — very fitting to how I like to kind of spend my life,” he said.
While his life is often “behind the scenes,” Scenna can be spotted on construction sites or on the sideline of the town’s soccer fields.
Scenna, an Everett native and the son of two Italian immigrants, married lifetime Lynnfield resident Rebecca Canter 18 years ago and has lived in town ever since. He credits her with their move to Lynnfield and his involvement in the community, which also includes coaching his sons in youth and high-school soccer.
John and Rebecca Scenna have three sons — Rocco, a rising junior at Lynnfield High School, and their twin sons, Charlie and Phillip, who are entering sixth grade at Lynnfield Middle School.
He said his favorite part of the town is its school district, but also that Lynnfield is somewhere he can “settle down” at night.
“How quiet it gets at night is just something that I always cherish,” John Scenna said.
John Scenna graduated from Malden Catholic High School, where he played high-school soccer, before attending Merrimack College, where he said he had to end his soccer career due to injuries.
Now, he has raised his sons, their friends, and countless other Lynnfield residents on the pitch. He currently coaches fifth – and sixth-graders and the high-school summer team. He said he has been coaching the members of the fifth- and sixth-grade teams since they were 4 and 5 years old.
“I have pictures that pop up on my phone as memories of these boys that are now taller than me, and more handsome, and they have this cool lifestyle. Then I have these goofy pictures that pop up when they were young and I always say, ‘Someday these pictures are going to be worth something,’” John Scenna said jokingly.
As the eldest of three sons of immigrants, working hard is in the “essence of everything I do,” John Scenna said.
“If you put in the work, good things happen,” he said. “I like to be described as hardworking, but I like to be behind the scenes.”
He grew up always working on home projects with his grandfathers and two younger brothers, Nick and Paul. Both of his brothers now also have careers in the same industry.
“With Italian grandfathers, there’s always something. They’re either painting, or adding a patio, or making the patio bigger,” he said. “I always liked that, and I like math and science.”
Although John Scenna now sits atop the DPW’s chain of command, he attributes his success to everyone that works with him.
“I can’t do it alone,” he said.
His goal is to create a department that works without him.
“We’re trying to create a structure not just for today, but for the future… Public works, in my opinion, is the backbone of every community,” he said. “Every day when it comes to work, my goal is to make sure that our staff understands what they do and they value what they do. And at the same time, my goal — my hope — is that our work and our production will create value.”
Throughout his work, John Scenna said he has learned about the two major groups within the community of Lynnfield — the longtime residents and the newcomers to the town. Both of these groups share their pride for the town.
“Lynnfield, for me, has always been a very quiet community with very proud people,” he said.
He said many people in the construction-management field move on to the private sector, but he decided to stay working in the public sector because of the impact he makes.
“I liked the ability to find the problem, create a solution, and then deliver it,” John Scenna said. “Now, here at home in Lynnfield, where the benefits aren’t just professional, I’m doing things that help my family, to help my boys, help their friends, and it’ll help the community that I don’t leave.”
