The City of Athens is losing a long-tenured employee to retirement. Bill Vaughn, who has been customer accounts manager for Athens Utilities since 1987, is calling it a career at age 62.

Vaughn has been an employee for the city for around 41 years now. He started as a laborer in the parks and recreation department while attending Athens State University. From there, Vaughn said he was hired as the assistant recreation director.

“After that, I went to work for (Athens) Utilities, reading meters,” he said. “Then I took the service person’s job. They created the collections manager job, and I rolled into it. When (the previous manager) retired in 1987, I took his spot. I have been there ever since.”

Vaughn said he has been responsible for gathering meter readings, sending out utility bills to customers, establishing new accounts and “unfortunately cutting off power when people don’t pay their bill.”

“He has been in the management position for a long time,” said Athens Mayor Ronnie Marks. “It’s tough to replace someone who knows the history, knows where you started. We all move on, and Bill will be happy. I’m excited for him and his family. He has done a great job for the city.”

Vaughn said he has seen a definite learning curve, being in his position for so many years.

“We went from doing things manually into the computer age,” he said.

Now that Vaughn is retiring from Athens Utilities, he said he is going back to the plan he had before working for the city full-time — teaching.

“Originally, when I went to Athens State, I thought I was going to get my degree and be able to teach,” he said. “I saw myself teaching biology and P.E., but I had the opportunity to work for the city, so I stayed with them.”

Education isn’t entirely out of the picture, though. Vaughn said he has registered as a substitute teacher with Limestone County Schools and will begin filling in for a P.E. teacher at Elkmont today.