Apr 19, 2021 2 min read

The Washington County commissioners honored the third-longest serving employee currently working in county government as she planned to retire Friday.

Linda Belcher received a silver plate before Thursday’s meeting as the commissioners praised her for her dedication to working for the county for 43 years.

“Working for Washington County has been a wonderful experience. It truly has,” Belcher told the commissioners. “All my coworkers have become my friends and my family.”

Commission Chairwoman Diana Irey Vaughan presented Belcher with the award and praised her for her service.

“Know that your working family will miss your smiling face,” Irey Vaughan said.

Only current employees Recorder of Deeds Debbie Bardella and Christine Barnhart, a caseworker for aging services, have worked for the county longer.

Belcher, of Eighty Four, wasn’t even sure her county career would last more than a year. She was just 19 when she started working in the county’s tax claims office on April 11, 1978, after being hired by the commissioners as part of a “pool” of female workers in a pilot program that she assumed would eventually lose funding. Her father even questioned why she would work for the county when her job could be eliminated at the whim of a new board of commissioners every four years, Belcher recounted.

“But it worked out great,” Belcher said.

The tax claims office was in the courthouse basement before the current county building was constructed in 1980. She eventually moved over to the new building and spent more than three decades there before working for Judge Katherine Emery, who retired in December and is serving as a part-time senior judge. Belcher is now working in community services in the Family Court Center before her last day Friday.

“It kind of came all full circle,” Belcher said.

Also during Thursday’s meeting, the commissioners approved a payment of $60,350 to Election Systems & Software to provide technical support with the electronic voting machines during the May 18 primary.

The commissioners also appointed Monique Taylor to the Washington County Housing Authority Board and Carole DeAngelo to the Washington County Tourism Promotion Agency Board.