ROSCOE - Judy Newman, the Town of Rockland Town Clerk, didn't plan a career in that position.

In 1991, she was working as a teller at the former Fleet Bank when her stepsister suggested she run for the clerk position.

She won that race - and many more over her 26 years of service - but will officially retire on Monday.

Newman has worked with six town supervisors since the early 1990s and clearly has enjoyed her unexpected career.

“The job has been great,” Newman said. “You are always learning something. You wear many hats as a town clerk. One day you'll be doing a marriage license and maybe the next day it's town board minutes.”

She credits then-Supervisor Elton Harris for teaching her about politics.

“We worked well together and I learned a lot from him,” Newman said. Eight years later, her supervisor was Patricia Pomeroy, followed by the late Patrick Casey, Stan Martin, the late Ed Weitmann and the current supervisor, Robert Eggleton.

Newman, born in Liberty and raised in Roscoe, said that she and her husband, Al Newman, will spend winters in the Florida home they bought in 2009. But they will be back in Sullivan County from June through October, adding that she might even “fill in once in a while” in the town office.

The workload in the town clerk's office has increased over the past decade, most notably because the Tax Collector position was eliminated about 11 years ago and that task now falls on the town clerk. Newman said that she had to take classes to learn how to do that job.

“January gets really busy,” she said. “There are 3,500 parcels in the Town of Rockland.”

Like many Sullivan County residents, Newman has seen the ebb and flow of the local economy all these years but said she is glad to see the Main Streets in Roscoe and Livingston Manor were coming back.