The Jeff Lord era in Westminster

A day after a former Westminster police chief went to prison for crimes in office, the city’s new administrator, Jeff Lord, spoke confidently about Dean Awalt, the replacement for Scott Bannister. Lord said Awalt is a man of “great ideas” and he’s happy to work with him. The former Walterboro town manager told the Westminster Rotary Club that he’ll leave a long-term vision to the city council while he concentrates on a short-term vision. That vision, he explained, will have a lot to do with how the city looks and how its employees interact with the public. And, as Westminster’s voting member on a board that sets policy for the city’s wholesale electric power supplier, Lord said he has already attended his first meeting of the Piedmont Municipal Power Agency and is beginning to learn about Westminster’s relationship with the PMPA and how it impacts what city residents pay.