GREEENFIELD — Come July, City Clerk Deborah Tuttle will be trading in dog licenses and birth certificates for a lake view and wailing loons.
Tuttle is retiring from her job in Greenfield on July 9 after 28 years serving the city, which include more than four years as clerk. While she enjoyed her time with the many residents who came by her office over the years, Tuttle decided she was ready to retire.
“It will be sad to leave the home I raised my children in,” Tuttle said. “It’s bittersweet but I’m ready for the next chapter.”
Tuttle began with the city part-time, serving under then-town clerk Maureen Winseck. Tuttle said she began after getting a call from Winseck, who asked Tuttle to help her update the census and dog licenses.
According to Tuttle, she “would have never thought about working in government” if it wasn’t for that call from Winseck.
Tuttle eventually became full-time for the city, working her way from administrative assistant before eventually taking over as town clerk after Winseck retired in 2014.
Tuttle said the job’s best quality was being able to talk to residents every day, as well as making friends along the way.
And as her retirement nears, she thinks about the home on a lake in New Hampshire and how life will become a little less stressful.
“The quiet of the woods and the lake,” she said. Tuttle also talked about wild birds in the area, such as loons on the water and wild turkeys roaming the yard.
But before then, Tuttle still has a few months where she can continue to do what she loves about her job. This includes residents coming in for dog licenses and young couples with their first child, excitedly seeking a birth certificate.
“This is the part I’m going to miss,” Tuttle said.
You can reach
Dan Desrochers at:
ddesrochers@recorder.com
413-772-0261, ext. 257