Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
DAVENPORT - After 43 years working for the city, city maintenance supervisor Fred Bell is ready to hand in the keys to the daily operations sustained around Davenport.
Bell is retiring from his position effective Tuesday, Aug. 1.
"I'm just wore out," Bell said. "I need something else."
"But Davenport's been a great place to work. They've allowed be to me on the volunteer fire department. They've allowed me to come and go as I please. They've allowed me to coach basketball."
Bell was an assistant girls basketball coach in Davenport under Brad Watkins and Stacia Soliday from 2011 to 2018 and at Christian Heritage School under Greg Bowman and Pat Bodeau in the early 2000s.
He was hired by the city July 27, 1980, to work sanitation. "I was a garbage guy," Bell quipped.
He was promoted to maintenance superintendent in the mid-1990s, where he's been plugging away ever since.
"I'll miss the community members and working with the guys," he said.
He doesn't plan to rest on his laurels upon retirement. He hopes to help his son, Joe, a Reardan-based wheat farmer, with harvest and "look for gainful employment" closer to his home between Seven Bays and Deer Meadows.
"I need to stay busy," Bell said.
He also plans to travel with his wife, Mary, of 43 years. Mary Bell is an M.A. at Lincoln Hospital.
Bell was celebrated with an open house party at Memorial Hall Thursday, July 27.
"I'm not one for parties, but it's a nice thing they're doing," he said.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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