Ohio Department of Transportation’s Belmont County transportation administrator Dave Shafer retired after 32 years of service to the community.

MORRISTOWN — After 32 years of service, Ohio Department of Transportation’s Belmont County transportation administrator Dave Shafer is calling it a day.

Shafer said that he decided to retire fairly recently.

“I decided actually in late fall that I was going to leave at the end of this year,” he said.

Shafer said that he is looking forward to being able to spend more time with his family.

On Tuesday morning, Belmont County officials and residents came together at the Belmont County ODOT garage to celebrate Shafer’s career and wish him well in his retirement.

“It’s bittersweet, the amount of people that have shown up today is wonderful. It’s county wide, it’s the partners that we deal with and people from New Philly and Columbus,” Shafer said. “It’s an overwhelming tribute. The years of service working with each and every one of these people that came today is very rewarding.”

Shafer added that although he cherishes many achievements, his direct role in managing snow and ice removal has been the most challenging aspect of the job. He said that his staff always does an outstanding job but — out of the entire year — taking care of the roads during snow and ice storms is by far the most arduous.

Out of everything he has done in three decades with ODOT, Shafer said is most proud of the fact that every single road in Belmont County has been improved since he began working for ODOT.

“Each and every road we have, county wide, has been improved and it takes a multitude of people to make that happen,” Shafer said.

Shafer also reflected on his most taxing time, recalling flooding in 2005 as the most stressful moment of his lengthy career was in 2005. The Ohio Valley experienced some of the worst flooding it’s seen from extensive rain as remnants of Hurricane Katrina made its way through the south and midwest region of the country.

“We had significant flooding and all of the entities within the county came together. Everybody helped each other, the central office and district came down and helped us as well as other counties helped us,” Shafer said. “That was probably the most challenging part of my career, but I was much younger and it was much easier to deal with.”

As far as what’s next for Shafer he said he doesn’t currently have any plans but is mowing over the idea of either working or volunteering in public service.

“I just love dealing with public service and people, so I’m going to entertain getting into something that involves that. I don’t know what it is yet, but I want to continue to build relationships and help people that need help,” he said. “I just want to give back.”