City Manager Fred Goins will retire Aug. 27.
At 65, he says after serving 20 months with the city, he’s ready to spend time with his family and on his hobbies.
“It’s all for good reasons – it’s not like when I left the county,” Goins told The State Journal Thursday.
“All these good things have come together – the fact that I’m healthy and I’m going to have an adequate income to enjoy my interests and hobbies and family.”
Goins was hired in January of 2011 at a Monday City Commission meeting. He came to work Tuesday morning and experienced a citywide power outage his first weekend.
“We had the biggest power outage in town history, so I was thrown into working with the emergency management group at the Public Safety Building almost the full night of that first Saturday,” Goins said.
“Then the power was out at my house for three days, and I said if I could live through this I’ll probably do OK.”
Goins made a career out of working in public administration after taking his first position at the Franklin County Public Health Department, where he eventually became director. Goins then became deputy county judge-executive. Though he only expected to hold the position for six months, he stayed for eight years and worked with four different judge-executives.
“Then I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, so I resigned from the county to deal with that,” Goins said.
After recovering from surgery, he went back to work with the health department on a contractual basis for two years until he was hired with the city.
“It seemed like a capstone for my career – a real challenge, and I was up for it,” Goins said. “I looked at it from a management background so I felt like I was well-prepared for a job like this, and I was just lucky enough that it became available.”
Goins said he has a demanding and stressful position, and being a people person helped him through turbulent times.
“We always have projects going on – it’s really interesting work and rewarding. You get to play a small role in a lot of things. Every day is full of action and I know I’m going to miss the action.”
Goins plans to spend time with his wife, Debbie, two grown children, Nathan and Piper, and two grandchildren. He also will retire in time to enjoy football and deer hunting seasons, he says.
“That will be fun for me, to network with people that I like to associate with,” he said.
Goins said he notified staff July 10 – about seven weeks from his retirement date.
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