WALTHAM — The Waltham selectboard has appointed its first non-elected clerk/treasurer. It picked Panton’s assistant clerk and treasurer, Linda Devino, out of a field of about a half-dozen applicants.
Selectboard Chair Andrew Martin said Devino, who has been an assistant clerk/treasurer for a number of years in Waltham’s neighboring town, had the experience to make her stand out among the applicants.
Devino will start on April 27.
Former Vergennes Union High School teacher Roberta “Cookie” Steponaitis has been filling in, and Martin said he and fellow Selectman Timothy Ryan have also been helping out around the office.
The position came open after the deaths of both longtime clerk and assistant treasurer Mary Ann Castimore in December and then in March of longtime treasurer and assistant clerk Lucille Evarts, who had been elected clerk on Town Meeting Day.
Both will be well remembered for many reasons, while Evarts will probably go down in history as Waltham’s last elected clerk.
Residents also passed on Town Meeting Day measures that gave the selectboard the power to appoint future clerks and treasurers, as well as expand the search for candidates outside the town’s borders. The board has also opted to combine the position.
Martin added Devino’s appointment will bring another change. For years the clerk’s office has been open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.
But in order to accommodate the new clerk/treasurer’s schedule, Martin said the office will instead be open Tuesday and Thursdays starting the week of April 27. The daily hours will remain unchanged.
Martin also praised Panton Town Clerk Maggie McCormick, Devino and Panton Selectboard Chair Howard Hall for the help and expertise that town provided in the past month. He pledged that Waltham would make Devino available to aid Panton if necessary as it searched for her replacement.
“We’re going to make sure both towns get through this,” Martin said.