LAGUNA BEACH : It’s Duty Again for Chief After Surgery

Seven weeks after undergoing open-heart surgery, Police Chief Neil J. Purcell Jr. is scheduled to return to work Monday.

“In my talking to him, he’s anxious to get back to duty,” Deputy Chief Jim Spreine said this week. “It’s very hard to keep a good man down.”

Doctors performed quadruple-bypass surgery on Purcell on Jan. 19, after an angiogram revealed that some coronary blood vessels were partially collapsed.

With Purcell absent, Spreine said, the department rallied during a busy seven weeks as the city was buffeted by landslides and a fire on Coast Highway. At the same time, the department is struggling with ways to economize as it prepares a leaner budget for the next fiscal year, he said.

Spreine said the goal is to reduce the stress on Purcell when he returns to work.

“The chief’s Police Department performed very well in his absence as a tribute to him as our boss,” Spreine said. “We wanted to let him know we weren’t going to let him down while he was gone.”