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Town clerk is home in Redington Shores
By BOB McCLURE
| Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 |
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| Redington Shores Town Clerk Mary Palmer recently celebrated her 25th anniversary with the town. |
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REDINGTON SHORES – They say you can’t go home again but that’s never been an issue for Redington Shores Town Clerk Mary Palmer.
The 48-year-old Staten Island, N.Y., native has had the privilege of growing up, living and working in her home of Redington Shores.
Earlier this month, she celebrated 25 years as an employee of the town.
“It’s been great. I wish I had started a book way back when,” she said. “It would have been an awesome read.”
Palmer said each day brings something new and makes her job the career of a lifetime.
Whether it’s working on the town budget, planning the town picnic or answering the phones, Palmer enjoys every aspect of her work, despite answering to multiple bosses.
“I have five bosses so I work closely with each member of the town commission,” she said. “A typical day for me is answering whatever comes my way.”
Palmer, who has worked for six mayors and countless commissioners over the years, has had plenty of memorable moments since joining the town staff in 1984.
One of those memories involved the town’s first picnic in 1992 when Dick Feimster was mayor. Feimster drove to Tampa to buy fresh corn and Palmer met him at the town park at 5:30 a.m.
“We shucked a lot of corn that morning,” she said. “Needless to say we never did corn again.”
Then there was the time in 1986 when the former town maintenance worker moved into the town offices and one of her first jobs was to answer the phones.
“I used to drive a red tractor and pulled a small wagon behind it with a smaller lawnmower,” Palmer explained. “So one of my first calls was from a person who said they had dog poop in their front yard and needed someone to clean it up because her neighbor doesn’t do it. I found out later my sister Dee (Doris) was behind it and got somebody to call in as a joke.”
Life in Redington Shores has always been fun for Palmer.
It began in 1970 when she and her family moved from New York to a home on 176th Avenue.
She grew up there, went to Madeira Beach Elementary School and Seminole High School.
Her parents, Gilbert and Mary Farley, one brother and three sisters enjoyed their early days in Redington Shores. Palmer often went fishing with her dad and spent many hours playing and swimming along the beaches.
“It was just a nice town,” she said.
Among her memories is the old Harbor Shores Grocery (now gone), just north of 175th Avenue, which was owned by the brother of “Bewitched” TV series star Elizabeth Montgomery. She also got to know actress Dawn Wells, who played the role of Mary Ann on “Gilligan’s Island,” while Wells owned a home in Redington Shores.
At age 23, Palmer went to work for the town. Her first role was general maintenance, which encompassed everything from raking the beach to fixing sewers. Shortly thereafter she was promoted to maintenance supervisor and moved into the town offices in 1986 when she was promoted to assistant deputy clerk.
Working under former town clerk and mentor Gladys Thiel, her first major task was to convert the city’s records into a new computer system. She also worked closely with the building department and bookkeeper “just learning things.”
In 1994, when Thiel retired, Palmer was named deputy clerk under Donna Draper.
When Draper retired in 2003, Palmer became the town clerk. It’s a job she plans to continue doing for many more years until her own retirement.
“I just love working here,” Palmer said. “Redington Shores holds a special place in my heart.”
The town hasn’t changed too much in size. When she first came on board, the population was 2,300. It’s about 2,500 today.
Town Hall was a former house on Gulf Boulevard. Now its a modern structure that opened in November 2000 at the corner of 174th Avenue and Gulf Boulevard.
Perhaps one of the more interesting things about the town is its changing demographics.
“When I was growing up, there were families with a lot of kids here,” Palmer said. “That faded out but now we’re seeing a lot more families coming in, especially in District 2 off 175th Avenue.”
Then there’s the task of keeping up with all those state mandates that get a little more stringent each year.
Whatever the task, Palmer gets it done ... with a huge smile on her face.
That’s why she’s just glad to be home.
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Article published on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009
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