After 27 years of service to the Carroll County Public Service Authority (PSA), long-time director of operations Ray Hill will soon retire from the PSA.

Hill, who has served in the capacity since 1982, plans to retire sometime around August. Hill will use accrued leave and vacation time he has built up over the years until then, but he will continue to work some between now and his retirement date.

Under Hill’s direction, the Carroll County PSA has grown tremendously over the past 27 years. When he took over as director of operations in 1982, Hill said the PSA had a mix of about 60 business and residential customers. Now the Authority serves nearly 3,300 customers.

“It has come a long way,” Hill said. “There has been a lot of projects over the years.”

The growing need for water throughout the county spurred the growth of the PSA over that time period, Hill said. The original Carroll County water system was built by the county before the PSA existed, he noted.

“At that time we needed water and the town had to build a sewer treatment plant for Burlington (now Mohawk). That is how they got started,” Hill said. “Then the Woodlawn System kind of got started because of the training center.”

PSA Executive Director Ronald Newman said Hill’s knowledge of the county’s water and sewer lines and projects will be impossible to replace, as will his dedication to the county and the authority.

“During his time with the Carroll County PSA, Ray Hill has been instrumental in growing the Authority from having very few customers to one with 10 water systems, four completed sewer systems and one under construction, and having approximately 3,300 customers,” Newman said. “The knowledge and experience that Ray brought to the PSA has been invaluable. Ray helped build the framework for the projects that are now being considered.”

PSA Chairman Sam Dickson said Hill and his wealth of knowledge will greatly be missed. He expects some of that knowledge to be passed down, adding that the PSA will continue to rely on Hill’s help to get many of its future projects up and running. He said the PSA will have to collectively come up with a direction for the future in the next few months.

“Ray will be greatly missed, but we wish for him to have a great retirement. With him leaving, that leaves a big void. Anytime you have a void like that, you can possibly look at combining things together or adjusting. The needs change over the years,” Dickson said. “We are going to sit down between now and the next few months and study this real hard to see what we need to serve people the best. He has left us with a good crew of workers and they have been trained well, so I don’t see any interruption in service to the people.”