Rhodes stepping down at Mount Olive Police Department
By Steve Herring
Published in News on October 8, 2014 1:46 PM
Chief Brian Rhodes
MOUNT OLIVE -- Brian Rhodes, Mount Olive's police chief for nearly four years, will retire effective July 1, 2015.
Rhodes did not attend Monday night's town board meeting where his retirement letter was read by Town Manager Charles Brown.
The announcement was not on the board's agenda and came at the end of the meeting.
"I think Brian has been a super great guy, a good cop," Police Commissioner Joe Scott said after the meeting. "He has been with us for 26 years. He has added a lot to the department."
There is not "a big rush" to find a new chief, but the town will form a search committee, Scott said.
"We are going to look at all aspects, in-house and out-of-house for a new police chief," he said. "We are going to give everybody an opportunity to interview who is interested in the position."
Scott said that he and Brown would set up the committee that would include people outside of the town, including Wayne and Duplin counties residents. The town sits on the Wayne-Duplin county line and a few sections of streets are in Duplin County.
The review board will look at how the town will operate the department with a new chief, Scott said.
That process will start after the first of the year, he added.
Scott was asked about speculation that the town would ask the Wayne County Sheriff's Office to take over law enforcement duties for the town.
"We will never do away with our police department," he said. "We will ask for assistance at times from our Sheriff's Department, but as far as Mount Olive, we will always keep our police department."
Rhodes, 50, joined the department as a patrolman in 1987, after serving for three years with the Jacksonville Police Department.
He was appointed chief in May of 2011 after serving as interim chief following the retirement of former chief Ralph Schroeder.
"I have had three back surgeries. I'm a diabetic and come from a family with heart conditions," Rhodes said of his reason to retire. "Me and (his wife) Greta went on vacation in August and talked about it. I have been kicking it around for a while. I decided it is just time."
Making the retirement effective July 1 will give the town plenty of time to find a new chief and it also is the start of the town's new budget year, he said.
Also, July 1 would give Rhodes four complete years as chief, which will affect his retirement benefits.
"After doing it for 30 years, you get up in the morning you put a badge on," he said. "You put a gun on, and you go to work. It is kind of disconcerting. OK, what do I do now? I don't put a badge on. I don't put a gun on."
Rhodes said a couple of people have already talked to him about work, but "absolutely not" in law enforcement.
Rhodes said he never aspired to be chief, but agreed to serve when former chief Ralph Schroeder retired and asked him to apply.
"When I took it all I wanted to do was to leave it (police department) in better shape than it was when me and Schroeder took over," he said.
Rhodes said he thinks that they were able to accomplish that, particularly with all of the new technology and equipment that has been put into the department.
"So yeah, I think that we have accomplished right much. I just appreciate the opportunity (to serve). We have been through some bad times, and we have been through some good times. We have always been able to overcome."