The Tom Vicini era in Lynch is coming to an end, but the mayor of 13 years is not completely tossing his hat out of the ring.

As he puts it, a new phase is beginning in his historic city, one that will thrive under new leadership. He believes his “phase” as mayor was “to get the infrastructure in place” and the next phase is to beautify the city in preparing it for tourism.

Still, hanging up the title of mayor after more than two decades and 26 years in city government will be a “bittersweet” transition, Vicini said after his last regular city council meeting on Monday. It was during that meeting that he noted some of the city's most successful projects, including a 13-year, $3.5 million water project that began under former mayor Charles Stewart's administration.

“The water project is officially complete,” Vicini said. He later added that “it really feels good to know that we've accomplished what we set out to do and that's replace the water lines.”

Vicini said the city was losing nearly 85 percent of the water pumped through its water plant before the water project was initiated.

“You can imagine the cost of wasted chemicals, pumping time, electricity and everything else. At one time, we were pumping a million gallons of water a day and only getting paid for 200,000 of it,” he said.

City engineer Leo Miller, who also attended Monday's meeting to give a report on the water and sewer projects, commended Vicini's leadership.

“I want to thank the mayor and this present council and the councils before for the progress that the city of Lynch has made during your tenure, Tom. If we go back and look at the sidewalks you did.