Wolcott retires as head of Assessor's Office

Date: 1/19/2009

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW The beginning of a new year is a very busy time for an assessor. Peggy Wolcott, department head of the town's Assessor's Office, just finished putting together the office's budget for the next fiscal year, has been reviewing abatement applications, attending board meetings and managing her office's daily activities.

"I should have picked another time of year to retire," she joked.

Wolcott, who served the town for 30.5 years, officially retired from her post on Jan. 16.

Originally from Massena, N.Y., Wolcott moved to East Longmeadow in 1960, the year she graduated high school. She worked with MassMutual before she joined the Assessor's Office as a clerk.

"I worked my way up," she explained, of how she achieved the title of Head of Assessors. "It was only three desks to work up through."

Wolcott said she first took up a position with the office because "it was available and it was local."

"I love the job," she said, "and it's only five minutes from my house."

The work she has performed has changed drastically since she first joined the Assessor's Office in the late 1970s. "We didn't have computers when I started," she explained. "We had to send out punch cards and then check each one when it came back. We used typewriters. [Now,] I'm still not used to networking. People in the office always say 'Peggy doesn't check her e-mail.'" She added that she prefers a more hands-on approach, meeting people face to face or calling them over the phone.

She became the department head in the early 1990s.

"I'm looking forward to retirement, but I'm sad [to be leaving]," Wolcott told Reminder Publications. "It's gonna be hard [to leave]. I love this job."

She said she'll miss the people she's worked with, the enjoyment she got out of the assessing part of her job and the sense of accomplishment she'd feel when she completed a big project for the town.

"She was the driving force in that office," Christine Saulnier, chair of the Board of Assessors, said. "She was the person we relied on to get the job done."