The town of Little Suamico, in its search for a new clerk/treasurer, looks to replace more than 70 years of experience. Eileen Bardouche, treasurer for 33 years, and Sandy Pagel, clerk for 39 years, will retire at the end of 2013.
The Town Board voted to combine the positions and plans to hire one individual to do both jobs.
“It’s lots easier for one person to take care of it all,” Town Chairman Elmer Ragen said. He said Bardouche and Pagel have done an excellent job for the town and will help the new employee transition into the combined position.
Bardouche expects the transition to be a challenge, and she predicted a woman will be hired.
“It will be a little hard for her when she starts because she has to learn two jobs, and it will be the middle of tax season,” Bardouche said.
“The new person will have to have to be open-minded,” Pagel said. “I don’t know what qualifications she’ll have, but she’ll need to be willing to learn all the stuff she needs.”
The clerk/treasurer is responsible for the municipal finances, elections, record keeping, tax collection and clerical duties for the town. The position is part-time, 20 hours a week.
Pagel said today’s responsibilities are far greater than when she took over for Rita Allen in 1974, after Allen passed away.
“Oh Lord! Through the years, it’s just been growing constantly,” Pagel said.
Especially over the past 15 years, the job duties expanded, requiring her to continually take courses and learn new practices. Pagel worked as the office manager at LaForce Hardware for six years before taking the clerk position and raising a family. At 65, she said she did not want to take on both positions and chose instead to retire.
Until three years ago, the clerk and treasurer were elected officials in the town, but since then have been appointed. Bardouche ran for the position once unsuccessfully, but won on her second try and in subsequent elections.
“I’m going to be 77 years old, and I think it’s time to retire,” she said.
Before becoming town treasurer, she took summer classes at Northeast Wisconsin Technical Institute and worked at a Green Bay bank for five years. When she started in Little Suamico in 1983, there were 500 tax parcels in the town. That’s grown to nearly 1,900 today, and the population to approximately 5,000 residents.
“In December when most of the taxes come in … you’re working long hours,” Bardouche said.
“The town has grown, and everything is on a larger scale,” Pagel said.
The size of the town is not the only thing that has changed in three decades.
“When I started, it was all done by pen and pencil,” Bardouche said. Now everything is computerized.
Initially she made out the tax bills and sent them out herself.
“That’s where my husband (Jerry) came in handy. He would put them in envelopes and stamp a return address on them,” she said.
Tax bills are generated and sent by Oconto County today.
Pagel said the clerk’s biggest challenge today is running elections, which are becoming more and more complex.
The town faced another challenge during a construction boom in the late 1990s when town officials needed to adopt new policies and regulations to deal with the growth.
The best part of the job, according to Bardouche, is meeting the people of the town.
“That was always nice. I collected (property taxes) in my home, and they always stayed to talk,” she said.
Pagel expressed the same sentiment.
“I’ll miss the people — meeting all the people — not all the trouble of it,” she said.
Both have outlasted the Town Board members they started their careers with, and overall have had good working relationships with town leaders.
“I worked with quite a few chairmen and board members, and they’ve always been easy to work with,” Bardouche said.
“I worked with some really nice town chairmen and some who didn’t want to do the work,” Pagel said. “When you get a good Town Board, it’s good to work with them.”
Both named the 2011 construction of a new town hall as a highlight of their terms and have enjoyed living in the town they served.
“I’ve lived here since 1966, and I like it,” Bardouche said.
“It’s a nice community. It’s always been a nice place to live,” Pagel said. She moved to Little Suamico in 1973 when she married her husband, Darrel.
Both said they plan to travel more often in their retirement.
“We want to enjoy ourselves and spend time with the grandchildren,” Pagel said.
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