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Triplett ends tenure in Damascus

By CAITLIN SULLIVAN/Correspondent

The stack of cards on Tony Triplett’s desk kept growing.
People around Damascus were sad to see her go. And she was sad too, to be giving up the job as town clerk.
“These are the best people,” Triplett said. “I love the businesses and the residents.”
Seven years ago, when Triplett took the job, she said it was calm thanks to the guidance of town clerks in Marion and Chilhowie. 
The town was still typing payroll checks on a typewriter, she said, and then Enron happened. Rules changed and all the finances got brought in-house.
“I learned a lot,” she said. “And like a dummy I took the bull by the horns.”
At her new job, in the Abingdon tourism office, Triplett will have her own office, a cell phone, a laptop and a leather chair.
During last week’s town meeting, Bunny Medeiros read a statement thanking Triplett for being “straight-forward and open-hearted,” going on to call her “the Damascus angel.” Afterward the 60-some in attendance gave her a standing ovation.
“It has truly been a pleasure,” Triplett said. “It’s been an honor.”
Back in her office, on her last day, Triplett says small town politics sometimes makes for a tough job.
“You have different personalities and different ideas and ways of implementing them and you try to be the mediator.”
A woman comes in and hands Triplett a card.
“You walked into a mess and turned it all around,” the woman said. “You really turned it all around.”
After the woman leaves she tucks her card into the stack of others on her desk and says she’s not going to open them until she gets home.
To contact Caitlin Sullivan e-mail .