On Tuesday afternoon, members of the Troup County Board of Commissioners joked with retiring County Manager Tod Tentler during his retirement party, and many of them unashamedly admitted that he had saved them from making serious mistakes during their terms in office.

Tentler has been a fixture at Troup County Board of Commissioner meetings for six years, but more than that, his work has unquestionably made a difference in the county’s direction during his two decades of service. We consider it a service to the community too. 

While the average county employee — or employee at most jobs for that matter — clocks out for the day, they are done. That was not the case for Tentler though.

When something went wrong or something unexpected came up, Tentler was there to help troubleshoot. We’d like to thank him right here and now for his patience with our reporters who sometimes called on weekends or long after the Troup County Government Center’s doors had closed for the day. Tentler made a point of being transparent with the press as often as he could, and that means a lot in our book.

He also could be counted on to be at the center of efforts to remedy those same problems, which inevitably occur in a growing county.

Troup County has grown significantly within the six years that Tentler has served as county manager, and with each new announcement comes the question over what should be done to encourage safe, sustainable growth that will benefit the citizens already living and working in the county. Tentler helped advise on the subject and managed those day-in-day-out growing pains until long term action could be taken.

His work as the county manager has been recognized by recognized by others within the county. We have covered those recognitions in previous stories, so we won’t reiterate that here. Instead, we’d like to simply wish him a happy retirement. He’s earned it.