AUBURN — Bob Belz just can’t leave the city of Auburn.

Belz, a city employee for 43 years and director of Public Works since 1980, will officially retire Friday.

But he won’t go far.

He is trading his full-time position and office in Auburn Hall’s northern wing for a part-time position and a smaller office in the Finance Department — for a few months, anyway.

Belz will serve as the city’s part-time purchasing agent and facilities director until the position can be filled permanently.

That will likely be sometime in September, so plans for an easy retirement will have to wait.

“This job requires a commitment,” he said. “There are mornings where you just want to sit and enjoy your coffee. But you can’t. You have to get going.”

And he has gotten going, since 1969 when he finished the program at the Central Maine Vocational Technical Institute. Today, it’s Central Maine Community College.

“At the time, we were doing a lot of the housing and urban development projects,” he said. “It was more improving roads and sidewalks, but we had a strong emphasis on solid waste.”

When the Engineering Department was joined with Public Works in 1973, he was a big part of that.

“We were trying to inject technology into the Highway Department,” he said. “There was a big move to reduce cost. We were reducing personnel, but we were expected to increase our productivity. We did that with technology.”

That trend continues today in all aspects of local government. Belz said it’s the biggest change he’s seen.

“The workload now is much heavier,” he said. “The city has grown, but our resources and numbers of personnel really have not.”

Belz has had his hand in shaping many parts of the city — from the urban renewal projects of the 1970s to Auburn’s first waste-to-energy incinerator, which later became Mid-Maine Waste Action Corp.

Along the way he’s become the go-to person when questions about city systems come up. He’s been preparing for his retirement by training Denis D’Auteuil to replace him.

“I’ve been available, if there are any questions,” Belz said. “I provided background for how we do things the Auburn way. But when I moved down to Auburn Hall, I found a few more things slid onto my desk.”

That included the purchasing agent work, which he does not think will last long.

“We’ve got real competent staff and a new city manager who seems really sharp,” he said. “I think the city’s poised to do some pretty great things.”

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