Thumbnail photo: Curry County District Attorney Joshua Spansail announces his resignation to the Board of Commissioners on Wednesday. | screenshot Curry County’s district attorney announced his resignation on Wednesday, telling the Board of Commissioners that he made the “bittersweet decision” for his family’s sake and his last day will be Nov. 17. “I’ve been here going on 10 years now either as a deputy DA or the elected DA, but this is a family decision,” Joshua Spansail told commissioners Lynn Coker and Patrick Hollinger. “I have just had my third child and my wife and I made the decision that with a growing family and aging parents, it’s time to get closer to them, so we are going to be moving on.” Board Chairman Jay Trost was absent. Spansail said he hopes Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek’s office will be able to seek applications for his successor and conduct background checks and interviews to get things in place by the time he leaves office or shortly after. He said he recommended Kotek appoint his deputy district attorney, Kevin Kelley, to the county’s top prosecutor position. “He’s been here since 2019,” Spansail said of Kelley. “He had over a decade of experience as a prosecutor in Washington County up in the Portland Metro area before that. He’s a very experienced prosecutor and, in my opinion, he’s a great fit for the job and I hope the governor appoints him.” Spansail was appointed as Curry County District Attorney in 2020 when his predecessor Everett Dial retired. The process took about a month, during which time the Oregon Department of Justice sent a lawyer to Curry County to serve as interim district attorney, Spansail told commissioners. Spansail said he’s hoping for a smooth transition for his office. “I think the office is in a good place currently, but with my departure Mr. Kelley is going to have significant responsibilities, a significant case load,” Spansail told commissioners. “I don’t envy him in that regard, but hopefully he can get somebody in place, a deputy DA and get the ball rolling on that.” Spansail’s office currently employs one full-time deputy district attorney and one part-time deputy district attorney. Spansail told Hollinger and Coker that he plans to take some time off to spend with his children and will “end up in Central Oregon eventually.” “I consider myself a career prosecutor,” he said. “I don’t plan on leaving this work, I’ll just be a deputy DA somewhere else.”