It's the end of an era for Swift Current's general manager of community services.

Dean Robson, who's been in the position since 2006, will be retiring from the City on December 31.

"We've got good people around us and good people will be replacing us, so is it hard to step away? Ya sure it is, but life moves on," he said.

He began his tenure with the City of Swift Current in 1998 as the facilities superintendent and his first project was getting Fairview West Arena built, but it's another rink project around a decade later that he enjoyed the most.

"In 2006, 2007, and the start of 2008 when we did the Centennial Civic Centre or the Innovation Credit Union iPlex renovations, so we added the wrap seating, dressing rooms, meeting rooms, additional crushed space, and a six sheet curling rink," Robson explained. "That was a major project, a real big project, I'm pretty proud of that one."

Since Robson began with the City he's worked alongside four different mayors and around a dozen city councillors.

"I think we're probably one of the most progressive cities in the province and per capita, we probably have more amenities than most," he said. "We've got some stuff that is yet to be determined such as an integrated facility, we've got an ageing aquatics centre that was built in 1980, and we don't have an indoor field house... but that will come eventually."

Robson said he's lived in 7 Saskatchewan communities throughout his life and Swift Current stands out to him for multiple reasons.

"This one bar none, the reason we moved back here, my family and I is because it is such a great community," he said. "It's clean, it's safe, we've got a pathway system, parks, and amenities like no other. There a lot of things that people would say we don't have, we don't have an international airport, professional hockey team, and professional ballet, but we sure do have a lot of other things that probably I would defy anybody else to say in a community this size that we have."

As for retirement, Robson is excited to not deal with a ton of time crunches.

"I haven't even thought about that yet," he said. "I'm looking forward to actually having a little bit of quiet time and the worst thing I wanna do is have a deadline where I have to have something to do."

The City expects to know more about the vacant role in the New Year.