New Mayor Les Bumgarner said considers himself energized andready to take on any challenges facing Brookhaven as he embarks onhis first term as the city’s elected leader.

In the first days of his administration, Bumgarner said one ofhis first orders of business as he begins his duties is to insurethe best work environment for the city’s own workers. He saidevaluating the efficiency of each department and finding ways tomake them flow more smoothly will be a priority.

“If our workers are out doing their job, the public image istremendously important, so we’re going to look at the breakdown ofeach and make them all better,” the mayor said.

Bumgarner, who has been a high school coach and teacher, as wellas owning a men’s clothing store, “The Locker Room,” comes to theoffice with eight years as alderman at large under his belt. Takingthe reins of the city will mean being at the office a lot, butthere’s a lot to be done, Bumgarner said.

“From being someone who coached and ran a business, in both ofthose fields, I put in however much time it took to get done witheverything you need to do,” he said. “I don’t have a problem withbeing up here working late into the night if I have to.”

And some of those long hours have already begun in his firstweek, the mayor said.

“I got here the other day at 7:30 a.m. and I didn’t get homeuntil 10 p.m., and even then my wife had to call and tell me tocome home,” he said. “I know this is time-consuming, but that’s whyI ran. I enjoy making progress.”

So far it’s been exhilarating, the mayor said. Tuesday was thefirst day he was officially in office, and there was a lot goingon, he said.

“It was exciting. I addressed a lot of issues and decided to geta lot of things done,” he said. “The hard part is going to be whenI can’t help a taxpayer for legal reasons or financial reasons.

“As a steward of the city’s money, I’ll have to make thosedecisions,” he continued. “It would be nice to be able to have anendless amount of money, but we don’t.”

Protecting the taxpayers’ dollars is a major priority, Bumgarnersaid, and that will be something he carefully tends to.

“We want to do what our finances will allow us to do, and notoverspend the budget,” he said. “My main goal is not to have toraise taxes.”

Meanwhile the city moves toward fulfilling its obligations underthe annexation guidelines. Bumgarner said that in itself is a hugeundertaking.

“Our biggest challenge is infrastructure; water and sewer in theexisting city needs replacing, not to mention meeting the needs ofthe annexation areas,” he said. “We’re going to try to do so muchevery year, and to provide service to the annexation area, andwe’re going to use grant money to do as much as we possiblycan.”

The point, Bumgarner said, is to be frugal while still insuringthat things get taken care of when and how they need to be done.Aldermen usually work to set the budget through the month ofSeptember, and the city’s fiscal year begins in October.

“We’re working on stretching our money as far as it will go,” hesaid.