Colorado Springs Utilities CEO Jerry Forte, who oversaw the massive expansion of the city’s water supply and the decision to eventually shutter the downtown, coal-fired Martin Drake Power Plant, will retire at the end of May.

Forte, 63, who was earning nearly $450,000 this year, said he told the Utilities board of his plans Wednesday in an executive session.

“It’s something that we’ve worked on, we developed a transition plan and it was just a matter of when the time is right,” Forte said. “And for me, I think the time is just right.”

A Colorado Springs native, Forte was with the municipal utility since 2002. He was the chief operating officer his first four years with Utilities before being promoted to chief executive officer in 2006.

Utilities Board Member Merv Bennett said both national and internal candidates will be considered and an interim CEO will be named within the week.

Looking back on his 16 years with Utilities, Forte said any accomplishments during that time were a joint effort and not his personally. Utilities employees, elected officials and ratepayers all played a part in each milestone, he said.

Forte said perhaps his proudest moments came when he and the rest of Utilities’ staff overcame the Waldo Canyon fire five years ago with the rest of the town. He recalled touring areas still closed to the public in vivid detail.

“We saw fountains of water coming out of 350 homes where water meters melted and no longer existed and those people were going to be charged for a lot of water. We were able to waive those fees,” he said. “Or you’d drive around the corner and you’d see a melted play structure and you knew that there was a family associated with that.

“That’s a home. A lot of memories were in that home.”

Despite predictions that it would be at least two months before residents could be allowed back into areas that had been evacuated, Forte said Utilities employees were able to make it happen in a week and a half.

He also called the completion of the Southern Delivery System a victory that will provide water for the city’s children and grandchildren for decades to come.

The system was finished in 2016, though the work began in the 1990s. It consists of a series of pipelines that funnel about 50 million gallons of water a day from the Arkansas River to Colorado Springs, Fountain, Security and Pueblo West. Few thought it could be accomplished, Forte said.

The Utilities Board also surprised the town in 2015 when it decided to shutter the coal-fired Martin Drake Power Plant downtown by 2035. Already one of Drake’s three units is shut down, but, with two to go, the board has been considering moving up the closure date. Late last year, the board unanimously voted to delay that decision and instead directed staff to gather more information.

Critics, however, say Colorado Springs Utilities’ continued reliance on coal while others around the state are transitioning much faster to renewable energy, was shortsighted.

“Drake is the state’s most inefficient coal plant and the last one located in an urban area,” said Zach Pierce, senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign in Colorado. “Thousands of residents made it clear last year that Drake has no place in the Olympic City’s future.”

But Forte insisted the move will allow the board to make an informed decision.

Monument clean air advocate and attorney, Leslie Weise, who has been embroiled in disputes and lawsuits with the city over the plant’s emissions, also criticized the delay.

Weise acknowledges that Forte is a nice and “likable guy,” but said he’s responsible for hiding air quality reports about Drake, which she has long contended contain information that the plant has violated federal standards. She and Utilities have been embroiled in multiple lawsuits in recent years which have cost the city and Utilities more than $100,000 so far.

“It’s disappointing that over his tenure we’re still over 70 percent coal,” Weise said. “There are plenty of other cities along the Front Range with 100 percent renewable goals and we can’t even get to our energy vision goal of 20 percent (by 2020).”

Forte also pushed for the installation of the controversial Neumann Scrubbers, meant to remove noxious sulfur dioxide from Drake’s emissions. While Utilities representatives argue the scrubbers, which cost around $200 million, are working as intended, the state Air Quality Control Commission deemed the plant’s emissions ‘unclassifiable’ in November rather than in compliance with federal standards.

Through all the controversy, though, Forte has said he appreciates that customers care enough to offer their input.

“I’d much rather have a process where citizens get to speak up than a process where something’s decided in another state,” he said.

In recent years, Utilities trained employees to take over leadership roles and made the company a safer place to work while winning awards, keeping rates low and maintaining great customer service, he said.

Board members Bennett and Dave Geislinger praised Forte for his work. As did Board President Tom Strand.

“Jerry carried on the terrific legacy of Utilities leaders in our community,” Strand said. “Under his leadership we have formalized long-term resource plans for electric, natural gas and water services that will serve our great city for generations. His contributions will last for decades and he will be sorely missed.”

Forte said he plans to publish a book on Utilities’ history, calling the research a “labor of love.”

He said he’ll remain in town and dedicate the summer to his wife, son and daughter. Beyond that remains unclear.

“The whole world is out there,” he said. “And I’m really excited to see it.”

Tony Peck contributed to this story.