Cecil tax collector retiring after 42 years
Janet DeFelice, shown at her desk in the Cecil Township municipal building, is retiring after 42 years of service to the township.
A box sits on Janet DeFelice’s desk for taxpayers to leave notes about their memories of her time as Cecil Township tax collector.
Janet DeFelice has collected taxes — and countless memories — in Cecil Township for 42 years.
She has dealt with spectrums of emotions, questions and concerns from residents, helped chase away tears and fears, and worked with people — especially if they were struggling to pay — as a linchpin in the operations of a rapidly growing community. One visitor to her Millers Run Road office put her on a clerical level, and not of the secretarial variety.
“I had one taxpayer say he always felt like he was going into the confessional,” DeFelice said.
Yet, ultimately, she did not let the demands of the tax office tax her patience. All told, DeFelice has enjoyed the work and feels she has been appreciated during her extended period of service, which began in the waning months of the Ford administration.
Seven presidents later, she is leaving. DeFelice, 71, will leave work at the municipal building Friday for the final time, retiring from the township she has called home for a half-century. It promises to be an eventful week that will include a sendoff Wednesday, an open house from 1 to 3 p.m. at the township complex.
A successor is not in place, but may be by the time the coffee and cake are gone from the celebration. No candidate ran for the office in November, and the Cecil supervisors are scheduled to meet at 12:30 p.m. Wednesday to appoint someone to oversee the real estate, street lighting and fire hydrant collections. That individual will hold office until the November 2019 election, when a candidate will be elected to a four-year term — provided there is a candidate.
DeFelice realizes she is heading into a brave new world.
“I always felt that time can never belong to me,” DeFelice said. “Now time is going to be on my side, and I don’t know if I will like it.”
She should initially, at least. Her family is taking her on a six-day, five-night vacation in early February, first to New Orleans, where they will board a cruise ship and head to Cozumel, Mexico.
But chances are, DeFelice will enjoy retirement long term. She is a congenial sort who typically flashes a quick, warm smile and embraces her hometown. “If you want a sense of community, you’ll like it here,” she said.
DeFelice lives on Klinger Road, near Southpointe, the mixed-use business park featuring several Fortune 500 companies. Southpointe has boomed during her tenure, the most identifiable symbol of the transformation this township of 26.4 square miles has experienced since, well, 1976.
“I think we had 4,500 residents with a low budget then,” she said, reflecting on a time when Cecil was profoundly rural. The township, bordered by Allegheny County to the north, is the first Washington County community heading southbound on the Interstate 79 corridor and was likely destined for residential growth. The population in the 1980 census was 11,271, the fourth-largest municipality in the county. That figure, DeFelice said, is probably close to 15,000 now.
She isn’t far from her roots. DeFelice grew up in Carnegie, the daughter of an optician with offices in the old Jenkins Arcade in downtown Pittsburgh, where she had her first job. After marrying a Cecil guy, she moved to the township and raised two sons, Ron and Vic, who operate DeFelice’s Deli in Cecil, and a daughter, Deana Gamboro, a nurse at St. Clair Hospital.
Cecil initially hired DeFelice as its earned income tax collector in October 1975. She also did clerical work for the regular tax collector, Johnny O’Hare.
“Then a wonderful thing happened,” she said. “Johnny said he was going to retire, and if I decided to run, he would help me. I had the opportunity to run and won. He supported me. He helped me get elected.
“I learned from him and a lot of good people. And it was wonderful working with Washington County tax assessors and tax claims.”
DeFelice said her job, over time, has changed along with the demographics of the township. More residents means more work, but more of her duties can be conducted on a computer. Yet, ultimately, she has gotten a lot of satisfaction from her job.
“When we weren’t as developed, it was busy, busy, busy seven months of the year, and you would catch up the other months. It’s busy now nine months of the year.
“When you accept work as part of your life and find something you like, it’s good — although you don’t like it when people are struggling.
“I’ve had some people say, ‘I hate to pay taxes … but not you.'”