Hilltown Archives — The Altamont Enterprise, October 29, 2009
Hallenbeck unopposed for clerk
By Zach Simeone
RENSSELAERVILLE — Kathleen Hallenbeck, 61, will not be challenged in the race for town clerk this year. She’s been running unopposed since 1975, when she was elected for her second term.
Hallenbeck recalls some milestones from her career at Town Hall, like when an addition to the building allowed her to go full-time in the clerk position. That was around 1980, she said.
“When I started, we shared one little office,” Hallenbeck said.
Before working full-time at Town Hall, she worked mostly out of her home, though she did work four hours at Town Hall, once a week. Her mother was her first deputy. Her first paid deputy was Connie Fox, who was also secretary for the planning and zoning boards at the time.
Hallenbeck now works at Town Hall from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Wednesday; from 1:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursdays; and from 9 a.m. to noon on Fridays.
“Tax time, I’m here longer on Fridays, because we’re collecting taxes,” Hallenbeck said. In those cases, she usually works from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., she said. She can also be reached by e-mail at townclerk@rensselaerville.com.
The most challenging aspect of her job, she said, is fulfilling her multitude of duties on election days.
“There’s a lot that we do that a lot of people don’t realize we do,” Hallenbeck explained.
“What I do is run in and out of Albany, picking up supplies and bags,” she went on. “On election night, the last couple of years, I have met a sheriff and they’ve been bringing them in for me. And you have to be available for when election machines open to the public, and, if anyone comes, you have to bring them around to look at the machines; it’s a lot of running. And the night of elections, everything comes up to me, and I have to call all the results in to the board of elections; we’re coordinating with the board of elections all the time when these primaries and elections come up.”
Still, she takes great pleasure in her work, she said, and looks forward to another term.
“It’s very enjoyable,” Hallenbeck said. “You meet a variety of people, and they come in with all different problems and questions, and you try the best to help them out — answer their questions. You get a lot of people lost up here, looking for the institute, or they got on a wrong road somewhere. When we sell licenses and we do all that other stuff, that’s according to rules and regulations in the books. But, when you see a smile on their face when they go out of there, you know you did something right.”