CT Blue

Now that Barbara Tarbox, Groton’s estimable Town Clerk, has made her intentions to retire official (I’ve known for a while of her intentions), I feel I can pay tribute to her on the pages of this humble blog

It is difficult to imagine how poorly the town would operate without a good town clerk. Besides the day part of the job (managing the land records, overseeing elections, etc.) there is the much more difficult part of the job where I have had most of my contacts with Barbara. That is not to imply that I have made her job more difficult, though I won’t say I haven’t. That is to say that there are very few nights when her presence isn’t necessary at a meeting of some sort, be it Town Council, RTM, or one of the commissions. I’ve been a member of (and been voted off of) every elected body in town. Barbara is there for almost every town council meeting and almost every RTM meeting. She is a woman of infinite patience. Not every member of every elected body is blessed with the gift of above average, or even average, intelligence. They often propose to do very silly things. Barbara is inevitably a voice of reason, which she backs up with a thorough knowledge of the Town Charter and the rules of procedure. She has, in her time, often deftly nudged the rowboat of town (compare: ship of state) away from the shoals of stupidity toward the placid waters of reason.

Besides my disastrous tenures in various elective positions, I have been on two charter commissions, the first of which had a high percentage of low wattage individuals. Barbara attended all the meetings, taking care of the record keeping, helping us with the rules, and steering us away from those ever present shoals. Barbara has the ability to advocate for a position without seeming to do so. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that folks from both sides of the aisle hold her in high regard.

Besides being a great town clerk, she’s a great person, which I assume she’ll continue to be even after she’s not town clerk anymore. She’s a loyal Democrat and a regular at our Drinking Liberally meetings, though she does, in fact, not drink all that liberally. Nobody’s perfect, however, and sad to say that despite the fact that she hasn’t got that much time on her hands, she wastes some of it reading this blog.

Barbara will be hard to replace. The job requires a rare combination of talents, which Barbara has in spades. If there’s anyone out there with good organizational skills, boundless patience, and excellent judgment there’s a job opening for you in Groton.