ROCKWELL — The town of Rockwell has undergone some leadership changes after longtime fire chief and public works director Tim Linker resigned recently.

Mayor Chuck Bowman confirmed that Linker resigned in July. He had served as the town’s fire chief since 2001 and has worked with the town in some capacity since 1987, according to the Rockwell public works department website.

The town has named Chris Renfrow as its public works director, said Bowman. Renfrow has lived in Rockwell since 2008 and has previously worked part-time in the public works department and has been active in the town fire department for the past 16 years.

The town fire department’s deputy chief Eric Bost has been named as the interim chief and the department is holding internal elections to name the new full-time fire chief, said Bowman.

Bowman said that he could not speak to the reasons behind Linker’s resignation, saying that it was a personnel issue.

Renfrow digs into public works department’s direction

Renfrow hit the ground running during his first Rockwell Board of Aldermen meeting on Monday, speaking for over half an hour about proactive steps he was hoping to take and receiving board approval for several equipment purchases and contracts.

“Part of my goal here is very much maintaining the equipment we have and being proactive with maintenance. I don’t want to be known as the department that rides around in dirty trucks, but I have to give my guys what they need to be able to accomplish that,” said Renfrow.

Renfrow, who officially began his work as the director of the public works department on Aug. 5, asked for and received board approval for several expenditures, including a pressure washing trailer, installing epoxy flooring in the bathrooms at Rockwell Park and hiring a company to perform street sweeping services six times a year. The trailer purchase was approved for $12,999 and the epoxy flooring contract was approved for approximately $2,813.

Renfrow said that the trailer would help with issues such as the department’s southern facility not having a water supply and being able to wash the town’s buildings and equipment in-house. He asked for the epoxy flooring because water had gotten into the bathroom floors and caused it to bubble. The flooring would also make it so that the bathrooms could simply be cleaned by rinsing them out with a hose, said Renfrow.

Renfrow also brought several ideas, including a new storage building for the department, in front of the aldermen that were not voted on during the meeting because Mayor Chuck Bowman and Alderman Dillon Brewer both were out sick. The present members stated that even though they had a quorum and could make official decisions, they wanted to hold off so that the two could provide input if needed. They also wanted to have Renfrow officially meet with the public works and parks commission, which includes aldermen Stephenie Walker and Jay Stake, before making the decision on the storage facility.

Renfrow asked for the new storage building because he said that his department had already outgrown their current facility.

“In a 30-by-50 building, these guys week in and week out cram a backhoe, a dump truck and three tractors in this small building. I don’t know how they do it, I wouldn’t feel comfortable parking two passenger cars in it, so there’s a definite need,” said Renfrow.

The expansion would be placed on the same property as the town’s limb and leaf facility on the south side of town, said Renfrow. He also said that Linker had already begun the process of expanding the department’s facilities and he was taking the opportunity to build upon his predecessor’s work.

“We’ve taken a step back and we’ve looked at some of our opportunities to have a little bit better bang for the buck for the citizens here in Rockwell,” said Renfrow.

The storage building is already included in a line item in the current fiscal year budget along with improvements to the town’s Legion building, with a total of $120,940 budgeted. The quotes that he received came in under what was budgeted, so the department has additional funding that can be “moved around” in order to add onto additional projects, said Renfrow.

Renfrow also spoke about several other issues that he is currently looking into, including applying for grant funding and looking into avenues that the town can take advantage of. He said that he was working to bring possibilities to the aldermen next month.

Several other projects that he mentioned included adding baby-changing tables to the park bathrooms, upgrading the Legion building parking lot, upgrading the stalls in the park bathrooms and redoing the landscaping at the town parking lot.