The village of Whispering Pines’ first manager is stepping down Oct. 28.

Steve DeBolt was hired as the village’s first manager in August 2008. He said in a brief telephone interview Thursday that he was still considering his future employment options.

“I’m exploring my opportunities, and we’ll see where they lead,” he said.

DeBolt said he is unsure if those options will keep him in North Carolina or take him back to his native Ohio.

He submitted his resignation during the Village Council meeting Sept. 14

When DeBolt was hired, he agreed to a five-year contract, with a base salary of $70,000. The council voted unanimously during the meeting to amend the contract to allow him to leave.

Sue Shuster, assistant village manager and finance director, has been designated interim manager upon DeBolt’s departure.

Mayor Bob Zschoche said the council has not discussed a plan for replacing DeBolt yet, but that it will meet next week to discuss it.

Hiring a village manager was a lengthy process back in 2008 because the village was making the switch to a village-manager form of governmentat the same time it was searching for its first manager.

Zschoche said it was too early to put a timetable on finding a replacement for DeBolt.

“The good news this time is we’ve gone through this before,” he said.

During his monthly report to council, DeBolt said he had “accomplished the goals of making the transition to the manager form of government from where the Village Council managed the the day-to-day operations of the village, with each member of the council assigned various administrative responsibilities.”

He further stated that during his tenure he had completed a list of 25 projects that he set out to accomplish when he took over three years ago and that this was, “a good time to move on.”

“I want to thank the council for the opportunity to allow me to move to the Sandhills and all our great staff, volunteers and residents for making a buckeye (from Ohio) feel welcome in Tar Heel country” DeBolt said.

Zschoche praised DeBolt for his work for the village.

“Steve did a very good job of leading the village through the transition from a village government that was managed by five council members,” he said. “Steve also was excellent at managing the village’s budget during difficult economic times.

“He’s put a check mark beside all those major things that we (council) had given him to do.”

Prior to coming to Whispering Pines, DeBolt world for 18 months as the director of safety-service-disaster for the city of Reynoldsburg, Ohio. He was responsible for police, building, streets, waste-stormwater departments and more than 100 employees.

He had more than 20 years of experience with state and municipal government agencies when he came to Whispering Pines.

Contact Tom Embrey at tembrey@thepilot.com.