Maynard’s city clerk is heading to the town of Fitchburg.
In a letter to the Maynard board and city administrator Greg Johnson, Joanna Bilotta-Simeone tendered her resignation effective April 8. She will serve as City Clerk in Fitchburg.
Bilotta-Simeone has served as City Clerk for Maynard since October 2020, starting on an interim basis before being appointed full-time.
“I love Maynard,” she said in an interview. “The people, the residents… I love the residents. I like working with people. I worked really hard to make sure we had that accent [on customer service] for city dwellers. »
She began her career at Maynard in February 2020, working for the Municipal Services Department.
A few weeks later COVID hit and in March she was sent home to work remotely.
She returned to the office full-time in October 2020 when she was named clerk and had just three and a half weeks to prepare for the presidential election, a feat she considers one of her greatest. great accomplishments.
“The first week we sent out 6,000 ballots,” she said.
A month later, she did it all again, this time holding a special election so residents could vote on funding for the new fire station.
During her tenure, she established an automated phone service and set up an online payment system for everything from dog licenses to marriage licenses. She was also approved by the community preservation committee to receive a $100,000 grant to archive the city clerk’s records, so that anything before 1953 could be put online.
“I did a lot in addition to learning and doing the day-to-day work. We are one of the busiest offices downtown,” she said.
Continued:Acting clerk on board at Maynard
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She looks forward to the challenges of a new job in Fitchburg – and a shorter commute from her home in Lunenburg – but the people of Maynard will be bored, both those who show up at the clerk’s window to get some help and his colleagues.
She particularly appreciates their compassionate and caring nature, which she experienced first hand after being diagnosed with cancer in March 2021. Because she had only worked for the city for just over a year, she only had two weeks vacation. His co-workers banded together and donated 450 hours of sick leave.
It still makes her cry to talk about it, she said.
“They’re just a great group of people. I have been blessed.
“I will miss Maynard. I can’t thank them enough. They made me permanent city clerk and I’ll be able to go to Fitchburg because of them and I’m very lucky to work with a great group of people,” Bilotta-Simeone said.
