Producer/Host: Ron Beard Town clerks play an important role in local communities, often behind the scenes. They provide direct day-to-day contact with citizens, play critical support roles to other town departments, and oversee town meetings as well as local, state, and federal elections. And they take great satisfaction in doing their jobs well and keeping up with trends and technology. This program highlights how town clerks in Bucksport, Bar Harbor, Deer Isle and Mount Desert communities carry out their responsibilities. Guests: Claire Woolfolk, Town Clerk, Mount Desert, Maine Liz Graves, Town Clerk, Bar Harbor, Maine Heather Cormier, Town Clerk, Deer Isle, Maine Amy Flood, City Clerk, Belfast, Maine About the host: Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.

The post Talk of the Towns 3/9/22: Town Clerks—an Essential Role in Maine Communities first appeared on WERU 89.9 FM Blue Hill, Maine Local News and Public Affairs Archives.