Rod Brestel has dedicated the majority of his adult life to serving the community where he grew up. Now, after 38 years, Rod has decided to retire from working full-time, but not from giving back.

The son of Robert and Joyce Brestel, Rod is one of eight children and was born and raised in Callaway. His mom still lives in the home where he grew up, just across the street from the school. “It was great,” Rod said about growing up in a large family. “I wouldn’t have it any other way. We had our battles, but boy, was it fun.”

After graduating from Callaway High School, Rod headed to North Platte and attended Mid-Plains Community College, where he earned a degree in building construction. “But by the time I got out of there, the economy had kind of tanked. Nobody was building or doing anything,” Rod shared.

So he pivoted from building construction to working at the local co-op in Callaway where his father-in-law, Cecil Woodward, was working. After five years in that job, an opportunity opened up with the Village of Callaway. Rod took it and has been there ever since.

He began working under the Village Utility Superintendent Larry Nelson, who had been in that position since 1966. “Lynn Longmore worked here then, and he started in 1977, and I started in 1988. I thought that was kind of cool - 66, 77, and 88,” he laughed.

Rod and Janel Woodward were high school sweethearts who were married in 1983. In 1986, the couple welcomed their first child, Kayla, and in 1989 they completed their family with the birth of Sarah.

Working on the utility department for a village the size of Callaway means you do just about everything, according to Rod. “You work with electricity, water, sewer, and trash. We also run the generators,” he explained. “I remember one of my first jobs when I got here was for the federal government, because they wanted to find out how many PCBs were in the oil of all of our transformers. That is an oil that cools the transformers, and they considered them a contaminant. So I had to go around to every transformer in town and take a sample to send in to the lab. Nowadays, when you buy a transformer, they have already been tested. That gave me a good education on where all the transformers are in town.”

He has gotten certified in water and backflow, but admits that most of what he’s learned over the years has been through on-thejob training. He moved into the role of utility superintendent about 10 years ago when Longmore retired.

The department includes three full-time employees who take turns being on call, as someone needs to always be available to address any emergency or situation that may arise. A few years ago, Callaway was hit by a huge wind storm, and a year or two later, a devastating hail storm, both causing significant damage throughout the community.

“Those were challenging,” said Rod. “But we got through it.”

Along with taking care of all of the village’s utility issues, his department is also responsible for removing snow from the streets in the winter. “We’ll get up at like 5 in the morning and come down and start pushing snow, so people can get around,” he explained. “We fill the swimming pool in the spring and shut it down in the fall. We pick up trash every week. There’s a lot. There’s not much we don’t do.”

Rod and his crew, Joe Dickman and Zach White, also put in the utility line for the new housing development on the east side of town. “They are both very, very good,” Rod said of his co-workers. “Since I’ve been the superintendent, I have been really fortunate to have a couple of guys work under me who will work their butts off for you.”

The position of superintendent has been offered to Joe, who will replace Rod when he officially retires at the end of this month. Zach will then move up and another employee, Levi Griffith, has been hired to complete the staff.

Rod said a big project the village crew has undertaken is switching over the electrical system from 2,400 to 7,200. “So we’ve been putting up new transformers, cutouts and arrestors, and stringing line. We’ve done a lot and there’s a lot left to do,” he said. “We looked at hiring a contractor to come in and do it, but the cost for that was about half as much as the material was. So we decided we would tackle that on our own and we are just slowly pecking away at it.”

As far as the timing of his decision to retire, Rod said it was a golf mate on the league he’s in who put the thought in his mind. “He told me when I turn 62 I should retire and take my Social Security. I didn’t think too much about it at the time. I had decided that when I turned 65, that would be it, and our financial advisor told us it would work. So that’s it.”

He turned 65 on Tuesday, Sept. 15, but he plans to finish out the month - so his last day on the job will be Sept. 30. An open house celebrating his retirement is being held on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 2-4 p.m. at the Callaway Community Center.

“We’ll be chasing our grandkids around,” Rod said with a chuckle when asked how he plans to fill his time when no longer working.

“I just want to thank the public for always having our backs and always being willing to work together,” he added. “We never even thought about ever living anywhere else…and I think we made the right choice.”