RENSSELAERVILLE — The newly appointed Rensselaerville town justice, who had her first night on the bench Monday, hopes that a career of serving others will serve her well as town justice.

Muriel Frasher, 71, said that, after she retired in January from her job with New York State, she was asked to serve as town justice by community members. She said she considered this for some time before she decided to submit her name.

“My community asked me to,” she explained.

Frasher was sworn in on March 29. She is looking forward to serve the town of Rensselaerville, a town she grew up in and that her family has lived in since the 1880s. She believes her background in providing services to those in need will help her better serve as a judge. She worked for the Office of Mental Health for 20 years and, prior to that, she helped start a battered-women’s shelter in Virginia.

“I believe I would have a lot of empathy and compassion given my background,” she said.

As a military wife, Frasher left Rensselaerville to live in Washington, D.C., and in Tidewater, Virginia. A member of the United States Coast Guard honor guard, her husband marched in events greeting global leaders.

“D.C. was, of course, amazing,” she said, of her time there and the events she witnessed.

In Virginia, Frasher served on the YWCA board in town and helped to start a battered women’s shelter in 1979.

“At that point, this was not a case that was really widely known … ,” she said, of domestic abuse. “There was a crisis that was not being addressed.”

While there were challenges in funding the shelter, some of the greater issues connect to what Frasher will be doing in the court system now. While she now can issue an order of protection as a judge during a case, in the 1980s women had to seek it out themselves.

“This is an amazing change,” she said.

Frasher attended the State University of New York College at Geneseo and then received her master’s degree in public administration from Old Dominion University. About two decades ago, she began working for the New York State Office of Mental Health’s fiscal division. Approaching the position from a financial perspective, she ended up overseeing programs on co-occurring disorders, which involves the pairing of disorders such as drug addiction and mental illness. She also helped struggling hospitals remain fiscally viable.

“You cannot help but see what’s going on in the field,” she said of what she learned during her long career.

When she retired from her job, Frasher said she had plenty planned to do, but still felt remorseful.

“I missed working with my brain,” she said.

Frasher was appointed by the town board in a unanimous vote on March 29 at a special board meeting, according to Supervisor Steve Pfleging. The position had opened up after Justice Dwight Cooke, a retired lieutenant in Albany County’s jail, had resigned this past December, less than two years after he began his four-year his term.

A Conservative, Frasher said she is not yet sure if she will run in November.

Frasher completed over a week of training from April 9 to April 16. One of the topics that was thoroughly discussed was determining who would be considered an acquaintance and who would be considered a friend, as a judge would have to recuse herself from a case if she knew someone who came before her very well.

“It’s a judgement call, to a degree,” said Frasher.

She said she feels well-prepared for her new post after working with different levels of law at her last job, and says that she is ready to serve her community.

“It’s a change,” she said. “I like changes.”