BELLOWS FALLS — Two key positions in town government are being vacated come July.
Town Clerk Doreen Aldrich announced she was retiring as of Wednesday, and Zoning Administrator Ellen Howard is also stepping down, as of July 11.
Together, the two public officials will take 60-odd years of knowledge of the town's innermost workings with them.
Adrich's long career began in 1988, when she was hired as an assistant to then-Town Clerk Rita Bruce.
In 1995, Aldrich was appointed town clerk.
As town clerk, she said, one of her most important responsibilities was to remain neutral at all times, in spite of her personal feelings.
She said she remembers “the prison vote” in 1998 as one of the most contentious issues she has had to deal with.
“You have to know both the pros and the cons [of an issue] and be diplomatic,” she observed.
The “merger issue” - the perennial discussions about merging the governments of the town of Rockingham and the villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River - comes in a close second, she said, laughing.
As a clerk in a town that has three separate boards, three separate village and town meetings, Aldrich navigated elections that could get a little hectic.
She said that one of the things she has seen that has helped her tremendously come election time is the electronic voter registration checklist. She said she was “adamant” that she was not going to like it - and that she changed her mind once she started using it.
She said the biggest help was the death notices or change of address of former Rockingham voters. She said she would often have to rely on word of mouth that someone had died or moved. The automated statewide voter checklist closes those gaps, and is simply a matter of cross-referencing the lists on the computer.
One of the oldest systems that Aldrich has dealt with is also “one of the best” she has used, she said: the land records housed in the recently refurbished town vault, where many irreplaceable archives are stored.
She said she “isn't sure but think(s)” that it was set up by Lyman Hayes, a former town clerk and town historian, during his tenure at the turn of the 20th century.
“We get more compliments on how easy,” the land record system is to use, she said.
Aldrich has been computerizing the records as funding for the project becomes available.
She explained that after the 2011 Tropical Storm Irene caused havoc throughout the region, her plea to safeguard and restore the records was granted, and $2 of every $10 records fees goes into a computerization and restoration fund.
So far, Aldrich has 40 years of records stored electronically, and she says it is one of the things she is most proud of accomplishing during her tenure as town clerk.
Aldrich noted that she has pursued and completed her municipal clerk accreditations starting in 1996, when she was granted Vermont municipal clerk status. She followed up with certification in 1996, and completed her master municipal clerk certification in 2003.
These connections fostered during weekend trainings, conferences and monthly meetings have resulted in lifelong friendships.
Aldrich added that her fellow town clerks are not stinting when it comes to answering questions or providing a resource she had not already thought of.
She said she might go one more time to the district town clerk meeting to say goodbye, but otherwise, Aldrich intends to begin enjoying retirement immediately.
What's in store?
Aldrich laughed when she observed that “most people want to go travel when they retire.” Not her.
She said she is looking forward to spending more time with her husband, James, and in her garden. “It's not a fancy or big garden,” she said, but she's got some flowers and a few vegetables.
And most importantly, there is no place she would “rather be than digging in the dirt, or sitting and enjoying” it from her porch, she said.
To keep herself young, Aldrich said, she intends to stay active in the community, where she serves on the board of the Rockingham Free Public Library. She will stay active in the Bellows Falls Rotary Club.
At the June 2 meeting, the Selectboard appointed a temporary replacement in Assistant Town Clerk Kathleen Neathawk, who will serve in the interim until the March 2016 election.
Howard also resigns
Howard, who declined an interview, will resign from six different committees or commissions.
She will continue to serve on the Tree Committee, though not as the chair, according to her letter of resignation.
Howard wrote that she has served the town in one form or another for 30-plus years and is looking forward to retirement.