BIDDEFORD — She started her career as an accounting clerk in the City Clerk’s Office at Biddeford City Hall 18 years ago and now, Kristy Cyr is Biddeford city clerk. Her nomination by Mayor Alan Casavant to the position was unanimously confirmed by the city council on Nov. 15.

“I am honored to be able to do this,” said Casavant of the nomination. “I think she will be an excellent city clerk.”

Cyr, 44, has most recently been the city’s tax collector. The Saco resident and mother of a 17-year-old son succeeds former City Clerk Carmen Bernier, who retired from the position earlier this year.

Cyr said she was interested in the job on a couple of levels – it would be a career advancement, and  an opportunity to interact with more  residents. She said she was hesitant to submit her name at first, but was encouraged by friends and colleagues, and so forged ahead and applied.

“I love working for the city of Biddeford,” she said. “So, I did apply, and it worked out.”

Two years after joining the City Clerk’s Office 18 years ago, Cyr became deputy tax collector, and nine years later, tax collector. For many of those years she held two jobs — working at a supermarket when she was not at city hall.

The responsibilities of the city clerk position are many. The city clerk prepares bi-weekly city council meeting agendas and packets and attends all meetings, as clerk of the council, prepares minutes, coordinates the annual update of the Code of Ordinances, prepares agendas for other committees, prepares for, and conducts elections, administers oaths and notarizes documents. The clerk’s office also processes sales of beach permits, shellfish, business, fishing, hunting and dog licenses, along with motor vehicle, boat, all terrain, and snowmobile registrations. The clerk collects mooring fees, real estate taxes and more.

Of course, she doesn’t do it alone. The City Clerk’s Office is comprised of a staff of five, including Deputy Tax Collector Amber St. Ours, who is also a deputy city clerk.

“Amber is great,” Cyr said of her colleague.

The staff, she said, are all cross trained, so someone coming in to pay real estate taxes, buy a dog license and register their car can do it all with one stop at a clerk’s window.

She, like other City Clerk’s Office employees, works at the polling station during elections, and in later years has been the individual taking new voter registrations at Tiger Gym on Election Day. This year, there were 800 new registrants that day, she estimated.

The starting salary for the new position is $80,000 annually, according to city documents.

Cyr said she enjoyed her job as tax collector, but there was less engagement with the public because of the nature of the work. She knows her new job will be different.

“I’m looking forward to meeting more people,” she said

Cyr is undergoing training — Bernier comes in to show her the ropes — and she will be undertaking further training to earn her city clerk’s certification.

What intrigues her about the work?

“I enjoy the city council meetings,” listening to the myriad of topics under discussion, the councilors views on the topics and more, Cyr said. “I know what’s happening.”

Copy the Story Link

Comments are not available on this story.