It’s official. Slatington Borough Manager Dan Stevens is retired.

After seven years of service on borough council with three terms as president, followed by almost five years as borough manager, Stevens is now taking some time for himself, with maybe some time for travel with his wife.

A businessman by trade, Stevens has operated DL Stevens Antiques on Main Street since 1988, when he returned to the area to be closer to family. Before that, he operated two lodges in Vermont: the Gray Ghost Inn and the Wallingford Inn, now known as the Victorian Inn at Wallingford.

Stevens took on the borough manager position in February 2020, after the spot had been left vacant for several years. No sooner had he taken the job, then the pandemic hit.

“No one knew what to do,” he said, but the COVID-19 was just one of a series of problems to overcome.

That first year also brought heavy rains from Hurricane Isaias to Eastern Pennsylvania and a flood to Slatington.

“That flood was probably the worst I can remember in Slatington,” Stevens said.

Thirty-four people had to be evacuated from an apartment building at the Seventh Street Village apartments and another 16 people were rescued during the storm.

The borough also experienced the unexpected death of its solicitor, Edmund Healy, in April 2022, due to an all-terrain vehicle crash while on vacation; the wounding of a police officer in October 2020 after a traffic stop ended in a shooting; the departure of two police chiefs; and the retirement of Mayor Walter Niedermeyer in 2021, who died in May of this year following a vehicle crash.

“There was a lot to overcome,” Stevens said.

Despite the job being demanding, Stevens said there are many things he is proud of about the work he has done as borough manager and as a council member.

One of the things he is most proud of is that they were able to do $500,000 worth of upgrades to the water treatment plant. They were also able to do renovations at Victory Park, helped the pool reopen, replace the roofs on all the main borough buildings, water line upgrades, and secure grant money to help cover the expenses.

“We’ve tried to do everything we can do with grants,” Stevens said.

The borough just recently received three Community Development Block Grants for next year.

“We’ve been able to accomplish a lot of things without incurring long-term debt on the borough,” Stevens said. “Fiscally, the borough is in very good shape.”

The borough was able to pay off its debt load in 2016, which makes budgeting and paying for future projects easier for the council in the future,” Stevens explained.

Leaving is always bittersweet. Stevens said he is going to miss his co-workers, but he’s been thinking about retiring for about a year now.

“This job is very stressful and demanding,” he said.

For his successor, Stevens offers a little bit of advice.

“The hardest word to learn for any new government official is no. If you go along with everything people want, you’ll be bankrupt. You can’t say yes to everybody. You have to learn to say no,” he said. “Make your decisions on the number of people you can benefit. Don’t make rash decisions based on emotions. Get the facts. Take a step back. Research the history.”