Township Clerk Kay West Retiring After 20 Years On the Job

After 20 years on the dais and behind the desk as township clerk, Kathleen T. West is retiring Friday.

As she sat with deputy clerk Sharon Auer in the clerk’s office earlier this week, surrounded by the tools of the trade – binders and folders of records stacked high on desks and shelves – she said the joy of the job is that it’s never the same from one day to the next.

“We all agree that we like this office and the work we do here, because it’s so diversified,” she said.

West wore many hats in her career before she moved to Manahawkin from Pennsylvania and began working as Barnegat’s clerk in 1991. She’d been a bookkeeper, a waitress, a bank teller, an office manager.

In a way, the job she took in Barnegat and grew to love requires a lot of skills from each.

As clerk, a whole host of duties fell to her. She served as the secretary to the Township Committee, was charged with keeping track of records, issued licenses and oversaw elections.

Any resident who’s been to a Committee meeting, registered for a dog license or requested to see a copy of the township budget has probably met West.

Dealing with all that requires a certain amount of diplomacy.

“We’re the complaint department,” West laughed, but for the most part, she said “people are very nice.”

Serving the township’s residents is a wonderful part of the job, said deputy clerk Sharon Auer, who will take over for West starting next week. Auer was in the private sector before she, too, came to work for the township in 1991 – first in finance, and then in the clerk’s office.

“I love meeting other people, talking to them and trying to help them resolve their problems,” Auer said. “That’s the best part, I think.”

And while there may be a lot of responsibility, it’s never dull work, said both women.

“It’s different every day – every hour,” said Auer. “You always get into something else.”

West agreed. The idea of working a job that required the same thing of her every day of the week makes her shudder.

“I think I’d lose it,” she said.

West won’t be gone entirely from Town Hall after she bids farewell Friday and retires to Manahawkin. She plans to stay active in efforts to raise money for the scholarship fund she helped establish for the children and grandkids of Barnegat employees.

The fund was born after West and a few others attended a graduation a few years ago.

“I guess I always thought scholarships had to be a huge amount of money,” she said, “but there are some out there that are just a hundred dollars. I came back and said to the girls, ‘We can do that.’”

Pretty soon everyone at the municipal offices was pitching in by raising money, she said, and the fund continues to grow – a happy legacy of her time with the township.

“I’m going to stay active in that, because I really love it,” said West.

Auer said she’d miss her colleague – after 20 years working side by side, it would be impossible not to. West said the feeling was mutual.

“I probably wouldn’t have stayed so long if I didn’t like it so much,” she said.