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September 30, 2004
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September 30, 2004 |
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For Berryman, job was family affair
Working in the Village utility office is a stressful job, if for no other reason than the complaints employees receive. No one calls to thank the Village for receiving a utility bill. So Marilyn Berryman, the Village finance director who oversees the Village utility office, encourages her staff — whom she called the “girls in the utility office” — to laugh and have a good time to deal with the stress. It’s the staff members who answer the phones and assist customers at the utility window who get “the brunt of complaints,” she noted. “In order to survive in that atmosphere, you have to find fun things to do,” she said. She added: “You almost have to do that to rid yourself of stress.” After this week, Berryman, who is 66, will rid herself of the stress of work when she retires after nearly 30 years with the Village. Berryman’s replacement, Sharon Potter, a supervisor in the state auditor’s office, joined the Village last week. For Susie Yount, who has worked with Berryman for almost 10 years, Berryman was not just her supervisor, she was her friend. Berryman “took care of us,” Yount said. Berryman, for instance, was always there to drive someone to a doctor’s appointment if she didn’t have a ride, Yount said. And when Yount’s mother died, it was Berryman who accompanied her to the hospital. After Yount finished her story, Berryman, who was sitting next to her outside the Bryan Community Center, said, “I don’t see that as anything special. That’s just the way I am. I can’t be any other way.” This attitude reflects a fondness Berryman has for her co-workers. “I’ve come to think of everyone here as part of my family,” she said. The Village employees, managers and the community, she said, “made my time at the Village a very rewarding experience.” Village Manager Rob Hillard said that Berryman’s experience with the Village’s utility billing service was especially helpful when he was hired four years ago. “She knows a lot of faces and names,” he said, and those relationships are valuable in the utility office. Berryman joined the Village in 1974 when Bruce Rickenbach, who was the Village manager at the time, hired her as his secretary. A short time after that, Berryman replaced Hilda Rahn, who handled the Village’s bookkeeping, accounting and payroll, when she retired. After Kent Bristol joined the Village as manager, he put Berryman in charge of the Village utility office. She continued to do the bookkeeping and accounting, and Peggy Alexander was given responsibility for payroll. Berryman’s new position was called finance director. “And I’ve been there ever since,” she said. At that time, Berryman said, the bookkeeping, check writing, accounting and the utility billing was done by hand. “At that time, things were fairly simple,” she said. The duties in the utility office haven’t changed, she said, but the responsibilities and customers have increased while the number of clerks decreased from four to two. Berryman’s first job out of high school was in the treasurer’s office in Brown County. She has also worked for Antioch College for six years and Antioch Publishing for five. She also took a year off from her career to spend more time at home with her sons. When a job opened up with the Village, however, Berryman applied and got the job. “And I never regretted it,” she said. When she joined the Village, she said, she felt like she found her niche. “You feel like you were doing something not only for yourself but for the community,” she said. After she got her first job, Berryman said, she started taking college courses “on and off,” at night and on weekends “whenever I had time.” She studied at Wright State University, Sinclair and Clark State Community Colleges and online. Around 1991, after many years of study, she earned a degree in business administration and accounting. Berryman was born on a farm in Kentucky, then as a young child, moved with her family to a tobacco farm near Ripley, in southern Ohio. Living on a farm, Berryman said, she learned to love animals and people. She came to Yellow Springs in 1963 with her husband, James Jackson, who worked at Antioch. Now divorced, Berryman and Jackson had two sons, Jeffrey Jackson and Town Jackson, who graduated from Yellow Springs High School. When asked what her plans are after she retires, Berryman said, “Anything I want to do when I want to do it.” She’ll spend time doing the things she loves, which she said include fishing, reading and crocheting. She’s also thinking about moving back to the Ripley area to be closer to her family. “Life is short anyway you look at it,” she said. “I’d like to have time to spend with friends…and family.” |
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