Dec 30, 2015 4 min read

If you have ever placed a call to the Chartiers Township building or walked through the doors during the last 44 years, chances are she was the one who greeted you.

But after more than four decades of working for the township in which she lives, Wendy Williams is calling it a career today as she answers that last call and welcomes a resident for the final time.

“She’s the voice you hear on the telephone or the first face you see when you walk up to the reception desk looking for help. I am sure she has met or talked with a majority of township residents over the years,” said Jodi Noble, township manager. “I have been fortunate to work with her for the last three years, and she will be sorely missed.

“Wendy is an institution,” she added. “She has a wealth of knowledge about this township that can never be replaced. You can’t quantify that knowledge. She is almost like the township archivist. If you need to find out what happened 20 or 30 years ago, ask Wendy.”

Williams started working for the township in January 1972, five years after graduating from Chartiers-Houston High School and attending school in Johnstown.

“The township supervisors wanted the township building to be open eight hours a day,” Williams said. “I was the township’s first, full-time administrative employee.”

The supervisors who were on the board when she started were James L. Thompson, William Bird and Bertram Zanaglio.

Williams shared the office with the wage tax collector, township supervisors and police department.

“We had a long table that we all sat at, and there were two file cabinets in the office,” she added.

The township building may be in the same location as when she started working for the township, but it’s certainly much different after undergoing a renovation more than 20 years ago that not only enlarged the offices for both the township and police department but vastly increased the meeting room.

The fabric of the township has changed over the last four decades.

“The township was pretty much all farmland,” Williams said. “The only housing plans were Moniger, Meadow Lands and Allison. It is amazing when you look at the township map at how it developed.”

While those housing plans still exist, they have been joined by housing developments across the township from Fairmeadows off North Main Street Extension to one of the newest, the upscale Piatt Estates off Allison Hollow Road and West Pike Street. In recent years, the township also has become a big part of the Marcellus gas industry, with wells dotting the landscape and the MarkWest facility off Route 519 (Western Avenue) near the Mt. Pleasant Township line.

“When I started, most of the residents were concerned about getting their roads taken care of,” Williams said. “Now, you get a little bit of everything.”

She also has seen a change in how the residents are protected.

“Back in the 1970s, it was a part-time (police) department,” Williams said, recalling Mike Kusky, who would later become a township supervisor, was chief, and another future supervisor, John “Rabbit” Kovatch, was an officer along with Eugene Oliver, Joe Politan, Bill Glendenning, Carl Askew and Jim Garove.

Oliver would become chief in 1978. When Oliver retired in 1991, he was succeeded by current Chief James Horvath.

Williams also served as secretary to the board of supervisors and was secretary over the years for the township’s zoning hearing board, planning commission and parks and recreation board.

Williams plans to continue singing with the choir at Houston United Methodist Church, as well as doing volunteer work. She also will have more time to visit.

“It has been a joy working here. They have been good to me, and the staff has been great,” Williams said. “I won’t be a stranger. I am sure I will be stopping in to visit.

“But I am looking forward to retirement,” she added. “It is time. I have seen generations of residents. Some who had young families when I started are now grandparents or great-grandparents.”