CHAPIN, S.C. — Over the past year, the Town of Chapin has seen significant growth which has in turn created more work for the town's Mayor and Council.
"Lately, I'm here every day and it varies from three or four hours to all day.. We had a council meeting last night and I was here until 10 o'clock," Mayor Al Koon explained.
Koon has worked as a part time Mayor for almost a year now after coming out of retirement.
His wife, Susan Koon, says she barely sees him anymore with the amount of work he does.
"I'm proud of him for wanting to serve his community like this but it's definitely hard with him being at work all the time," Susan said.
However, all of the late nights and overtime hours may end in the next few months with the creation of a town administrator position.
Town councilman, Leland Teal, says the city has been working to create the position for months. He explained that it will not change their local government, and this position will be full-time.
"This person we are hiring will just help even out the workload," Teal said. "The Mayor will still have all the power, this person will work underneath the council and the mayor to help us out with administrative duties and helping with communication in the office. We will not be changing our form of government."
The council was supposed to discuss the position in their meeting on Tuesday, but decided to take more time to write specific wording in the positions contract about what will be expected of the town administrator.
The city council will have a regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, September 20, and the Mayor hopes to have the town administrator position to a second reading.