After spending almost three decades as Town Clerk, Michelle Mosher stepped down from her post serving her last day on December 30th, 2022. During her time in the position, she served under six different administrations and was a name that many came to know from their interactions with her at Town Hall or from seeing her name on town business over the years. She was honored in December when the town board voted unanimously to name the Town Hall’s meeting room after her. It will now be called the Michelle L. Mosher Meeting Room.
I recently had the chance to catch up with Michelle about her time as town clerk and to see what she is doing now. I started by asking if she was surprised by the naming of the room after her. She told me she didn’t have any idea but when five of her former supervisors showed up for a late December meeting she thought it was a bit unusual. “I knew then something was up but never dreamed that it was to honor me by naming the meeting room after me. I was deeply touched and a bit emotional at the very meaningful gesture.”
The Town Clerk has a plethora of diverse responsibilities. Typically, Michelle was the first person in the local government to interact with town residents. Michelle shared, “On a daily basis I could answer any number of questions from ‘Is the dump open?’ to ‘Who do I talk to about a subdivision?’ to ‘How do I get a marriage license?’”. Over the years she issued hundreds of marriage licenses, hunting licenses, dog licenses, birth and death certificates as well as transfer station permits. Not to mention attending and taking the minutes at all Town Board meetings. She also added, “Don’t forget I was also the Tax Collector. During tax season that in itself was a full-time endeavor!”
Town clerks are also the keepers of all of the Town records. In fact, when pressed to narrow it down to her favorite part of the job she replied, “I loved the history of Gardiner. Researching family information for genealogy was fascinating to me.” She went on to say that many of the old records were in really bad shape when she took office and over the years she worked to repair and preserve these records for future generations.
As for what she is up to now… Well, she admits that she is “not sure how retirement is supposed to feel,” but is keeping busy helping out with tax collection at town hall, spending time with family and her “sweet puppy Jasper” and looks forward to “traveling to some tropical and exotic locations in the near future.” She is also in the process of growing her natural homemade soap making business named “Jasper & Ivy” and expanding it to include other products such as bath bombs, lotion bars, lip scrubs and more. She plans to continue with what began as a hobby during Covid and create a small-batch, handmade bath product company. Michelle is still in the beginning stages of her business and doesn’t have a website yet, but perhaps we will do another article in the future about Jasper & Ivy as it grows!