After nearly a quarter-century of working for the City of Verona, Pat Anderson knows a lot about how local government works.
And she wishes more people did.
“I wish more people would take an interest in (local government) and become involved,” said Anderson, whose last day as the city’s administrative assistant was Friday. “Even if it’s just volunteering to be on a citizens’ committee for a while. … I don’t think people coming up understand what government is all about.”
In her job, Anderson, 64, was often the first person to greet people at City Hall who had questions about getting a building permit, reserving a park shelter or how to get a streetlight fixed.
When she started as a secretary and receptionist in June 1988, the city manager was Bev Beyer. The city hired an administrator, Larry Saeger, in 1997, and Anderson served as the administrative assistant from 1999 until her retirement.
Prior to her job at City Hall, Anderson was elected to City Council in 1986 after she was encouraged by then-mayoral candidate and neighbor Phil Salkin to run for the seat. She won a second term but had to resign when she was hired by the city.
Anderson said last week she wasn’t ready to end her career in local government, but she’s resigning due to health concerns.
“I’ve enjoyed the work here, I’ve loved the people you get to meet,” she said.
Anderson grew up on a 120-acre dairy farm in the Town of Springdale and has local politics in her blood. Her dad, Edgar Lingard, chaired the Springdale Town Board, as did her grandfather.
Before taking her city job, Anderson’s career included stints as a nanny, doing clerical work for a surgical supply division at a Kentucky Army base, updating service manuals at a Kansas base used to repair Vietnam-War helicopters and working in the accounting department at Sears in West Towne Mall.
She moved to Verona in the early 1970s, buying a home on Franklin Street that she and her husband and former high school sweetheart, Ken Anderson, have shared for 33 years.
Anderson said that besides taking care of herself, she hopes to ride her Honda Goldwing more in retirement and spend time with her daughter, stepdaughter and step-grandchildren.
Of her city job, Anderson said she liked the variety of each day, as she never knew what, exactly, a day would bring.
She liked interacting with citizens, even when they came in with gripes, she said. Humor helped, too. She recalled telling one upset man that she unfortunately couldn’t help him, so he might as well yell at the plants and not her.
“Every year he would come back to (city hall), knock on the window and say, ‘I’m going to talk to the plants.’”
