Buford to retire

Lloyd Buford was the meat market manager for Safeway stores in Nebraska for 11 years but grew tired of the grocery business.

At the time, Buford knew he wanted to own a small business of his own and caught wind of a meat locker for sale in Encampment. He was familiar with this area and ended up buying the business. He moved his family to Wyoming in 1983. With three small children, Lloyd and his wife Jan needed more income and some form of insurance. A part-time police officer position, that offered insurance, was open at the time and Buford signed up.

After 17 years of service for the Encampment Police Department, a stint as the mayor, a turn as a council member and time on the planning commission, Buford announced he is going to retire at the end of March.

“I figure I have enough years in, and it’s time. I’ll be 62 years old at the end of March and I have had a good run at it. It’s time to retire,” Buford said.

Buford started in 1986 but left and came back, then left and came back again. This is the third run for Buford as the town of Encampment’s police officer. Being full time, and being the town’s only police officer has its way of burning a person out, Buford said. “You would practically have to leave town to get a day off.”

Buford was also the mayor and a councilman during his time in Encampment.

“I enjoyed being the mayor and I was on for two years,” Buford said. “We got some things accomplished. We moved our dispatch to Saratoga at that time and that saved the town $45,000 per year. Plus it gave us 24-hour, from-office dispatch.”

The toughest part of being mayor was having to make unpopular decisions for the good of the community he said.

“You can’t make everyone happy all the time, and I had to make the best decision for the whole. Not for one or two or 10 or 12,” Buford said.

During Buford’s four years on the council, the town instated retirement for all of the town employees.

This is a good plus Buford said, because a town has to have good employees and the way to keep good employees around a small town is to offer retirement.

In his 17 years, Buford remembers people rather than cases. The memories are more of serving the community, Buford said.

“We didn’t have any big capers,” Buford said. “More like getting a call from the nice old lady at 11:30 at night saying the furnace was out.”

Those things, along with watching a generation of kids go through school and grow up to have kids that are in the school now, are the things Buford remembers most.

Buford was told years ago in a psychiatric evaluation that he was better suited for a small community, and Encampment was the perfect place in Buford’s opinion.

“It’s all about serving, not anything else,” Buford said. “It’s not about how many tickets I can give out. It’s about, ‘Do you feel safe in your community?’”

Another measure of Buford’s success, he feels, is the fact that he can drive through the community without seeing poor streets and graffiti on the wall.

The community respects the service Buford gives, and in turn, Buford respects the community. The peace of mind of the community was most important during Buford’s time, he said.

“Common sense goes a long way in small-town law enforcement,” Buford said. “Treating people like you want to be treated was the key.”

Buford plans to re-open his meat processing business maybe three days a week. He is planning to process domestic meat again. The wild game processing season also keeps him very busy in September and October, Buford said.

“Just enough work to keep me somewhat busy,” Buford said. “I’m also going to polish up my golf game and do a lot more fishing.”