Landrum City Administrator Steve Wolochowicz notified council Tuesday, Feb. 12 that he would be retiring later this spring.

“It’s just time to pause,” said Wolochowicz of his decision. “I want to have a little down time and spend more time with my wife and family.”

Mayor Robert Briggs said Wolochowicz, who began working as Landrum’s city administrator eight years ago, would be hard to replace.

“He’s been such an integral part of Landrum for the last eight years that we really hate to see him go,” said Briggs. “It’s been a wonderful relationship and we’ve all worked together so well.”

In a letter to council, Wolochowicz said he felt proud of the accomplishments the city has made in the almost decade since he took the position.

“When I first accepted this position, I had a number of goals that I wanted to achieve during my tenure,” he said in the letter. “I am pleased to say that all of my goals have been realized and now it’s time to move on to the next chapter of my life.”

Several of those accomplishments include developing a city website to promote the city as a tourism destination, to complete the development of Brookwood Park and to secure funding and begin construction of the N. Randolph Avenue sidewalk project among other tasks.

Since Wolochowicz took on the job Landrum has developed a website, which now averages 138,000 hits per month. The city also transformed a middle portion of Brookwood Park that was overrun with kudzu into a paved walking trail and has seen the first phase of the N. Randolph sidewalk project completed. The second phase of the sidewalk project will go out to bid in June 2013. The city has also moved forward with plans to renovate the historic railroad depot.

“Things are going well and you know it’s always better to go out while there is still some music playing,” he said. “I do want to make sure everything keeps running smoothly – I still have a vested interest in seeing Landrum prosper.”

Councilman John Carruth said though he’s only worked with Wolochowicz for the past year, he feels more was accomplished than had been under past administrators.

“He’s done a great job the last eight years,” Carruth said. “He’s pulled everybody together in the city boards and organizations and let us know what is going on.”

Carruth said Wolochowicz took on a leadership role that many others did not in the past.

Mayor Briggs said he hopes the city can find a replacement that can handle the daily stress of a city administrator’s job.

“One thing we look for is someone with strong people skills. Those administrator jobs are difficult jobs in trying to deal with all the people in a city and make everyone happy,” Briggs said.

Wolochowicz leaves the position April 30.