Brownwood Assistant City Manager Tim Airheart will bring an end to a 30-year career as an employee of the City on May 19 when he begins his retirement.

“I’ve spent 30 years here – 27 this stint and three years before – and I’ve been thinking about it for about a year,” Airheart said in a Tuesday morning interview. “It’s just time, it’s time for a younger generation to come on board and take over. I’m anxiously looking forward to retirement actually. I have a lot of honey do’s built up at home.”

Regarding what he will miss most about the job, Airheart quickly responded with “the people here.”

“We’ve got an excellent staff, they just take care of business,” Airheart said. “I can’t say enough about Tim Murray, Development Director, Todd Thompson at the landfill, and Tommy Bell at fleet services. They’ve been with me the longest and they look out for me and take care of the citizens and equipment with their respective responsibilities. I just couldn’t be prouder of those guys.”

Asked about the greatest impact or contribution he felt he made during his tenure, Airheart said, “I got to develop some really good employees along the way. I think our investment in our people and their training has really been the thing I’m most proud of.”

Among the biggest changes Airheart has seen during his time as a employee of the city have involved technology.

“When I came here there were virtually no computers whatsoever and e-mail didn’t exist,” Airheart said. “Technology allows us to communicate better, faster and to a wider audience than what we had before. It’s almost instantaneous and that’s really made all of our jobs easier in terms of communicating with the residents and with each other.”