After nearly three decades of state and county government service, Newton County Administrator Steve Seale will retire at the end of next month.
Seale formally announced his retirement at the Thursday County Supervisors meeting and the board accepted his resignation.
Right now, there is no plan on whether the county will retain the position of county administrator.
Seale has served as the county administrator for around 13 and a half years.
Seale was raised in Neshoba County and still lives there with his family.
He earned a degree in Accounting from Mississippi State University, and soon after started work with the state auditor’s office in 1990. In order to better get a hold on county expenses, the Board of Supervisors decided to hire a county administrator in late 2004 and Seale started work on Jan. 10, 2005. Seale said he is most proud of helping the county get its revenue consistently in the black, making it possible to spend more funding for roads, county worker salaries and the library system.
“We revamped the purchasing system and reworked the way they budgeted and just a lot of checks and balances on monthly expenses,” Seale said. “We went from having to borrow money every year to where we have a surplus now. We were having to borrow money to pay bills and we’ve gotten past that.”
Seale’s last day will be June 30 and he says he will miss the daily work of helping to keep the county running smoothly.
“I will just miss the day-to-day interaction with my coworkers and the people that come in off the street. I get a lot of visitors,” he said. “I’m the first person that a lot of people talk to when they’re trying to get to the board. I’ve enjoyed it.”
Seale said his wife should keep him busy with projects around the house for a while. He said he also looks forward to spending more time with his two daughters, the oldest one is a junior at Mississippi State and the youngest is a rising senior at Neshoba Central.
In other business at Thursday’s meeting, District 5 Supervisor Glenn Hollingsworth announced that the bridge on Hickory-Fellowship road had been reopened on Thursday morning. The bridge had been closed since mid-April when Gov. Phil Bryant declared a state of emergency and ordered 87 bridges closed across the state.
Hollingsworth said Thursday the bridge had passed state inspection and was open for vehicles.
