After more than three decades of service to the City of Newark, Electric director Rick Vitelli will retire, effective September 1. A nationwide search will begin in the coming weeks to identify his successor.

"Rick has served as a strong leader for the City's electric department for more than 20 years," said acting city manager Tom Coleman. "His comprehensive knowledge of the City's electrical systems, along with his efforts to ensure to continuous service to our residents, highlight his commitment to service excellence. He will be missed, but we wish him well in his retirement."

Vitelli began working for the City of Newark as the assistant electric director in 1985, advancing to the electric director role in 1995. Prior to his service with the City, Vitelli worked as a project engineer for H. L. YOH Company and as a computer operator for E. I. DuPont de Nemours & Company.

"I very much enjoyed my time with the City of Newark," said Vitelli. "I'm proud of the progress we've made with the electric utility during my tenure, and believe the City has a solid foundation on which to build future progress."

Key accomplishments during his tenure with the City of Newark include:

• Moved the electric department into the digital age by putting paper maps into a GIS system, implementing a SCADA system to monitor all the substation equipment, and beginning the auto-restoration project, which will decrease outage times
• Improved construction quality by creating standards and developing a contractors' distribution handbook
• Improved reliability by modernizing relays and expanding the tree trimming program
• Boosted linemen's knowledge by requiring coursework from the Northwest Lineman's College to be completed
• Increased capacity by installing 12 substation transformers, creating three new substation sites, expanding the main city substation and adding four new sub-transmission circuits
• Increased capacity by upgrading nearly all of the City's 4kV load to 12kV
• Improved system efficiency by changing the streetlights to LED

Deputy director of electric Bhadresh Patel will serve as acting director while a search is conducted for Vitelli's successor. Patel came to Newark in October 2016, after serving four years as an electric engineer for the City of Dover. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Delaware.