Amarillo interim City Manager Terry Childers has re-thought what he said earlier this week.

He said initially in public that he regrets the manner in which a 911 call turned out.

Now he says he’s “sorry.” He’s issued an apology. In public. Out loud. To the city he administers.

There. Now, can we put this matter to rest?

This story needs to quiet down.

Amarillo has been through too much turmoil in the past year.

A new City Council majority promised “change.” It brought it. City Manager Jarrett Atkinson quit, as did other senior city staff.

The council brought in Childers, the former Oklahoma City manager, to steady the city’s administrative ship.

Then came the 911 call to the Amarillo Emergency Communication Center. He got agitated over the way the dispatcher responded to his report of a missing briefcase.

There’s been plenty of criticism being tossed around the city at the interim manager. I’ve heard rumblings that some of it has been quite ugly, although I have not seen or read any of it with my own eyes.

OK. He’s now said he’s sorry, which I guess lies near the heart of what concerned some residents.

Let’s hope this matter can be put to rest, that the interim manager can continue his work running the city and that the council can proceed with its search for a permanent chief administrator.