TOWN CLERK Barbara Stats (center) was feted Friday at a retirement party held at the Hillview in recognition of her four decades of service to the town, including 24 years as Town Clerk. From left: grandson Jake Stats, husband Don Stats Sr., Mrs. Stats, son Fire Chief Don Stats Jr. and daughter-in-law Tracy Stats. See story, more photos inside. (Maureen Doherty Photo)
By MAUREEN DOHERTY
NORTH READING — The big blizzard of the season expected to roll through town last Friday was gracious enough to hold off until nighttime, which enabled both a public reception and a private retirement party for the Town Clerk to be held that afternoon.
The tribute to Barbara Stats held in the ballroom at the Hillview Country Club – where there was plenty of room to socially distance – was certainly well-deserved. She began her tenure with the town back in 1981 when Town Hall was still housed in Flint Memorial Hall until it moved across town to the old Murphy elementary school in 1988. She eventually was named Town Clerk in 1998 after the retirement of Betty Vullo, a post she has held for the past 24 years.
During that time she has administered hundreds of oaths of office and has run countless elections, Town Meetings with all their warrant articles, special elections, override votes, recounts and kept the voter rolls up to date. She has organized the annual town census, kept track of thousands of rabies certificates and overseen all of the town’s vital statistics — births, marriages, deaths. She also ensured that the state’s Open Meeting Law is adhered to, including the posting of every meeting agenda and all public hearing notices. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Sen. Bruce Tarr commented that the people gathered in the room to celebrate Barbara’s retirement are the folks everyone counts on to keep the town running. “Barbara, you are emblematic of that,” he said.
“It is a bittersweet time for us to recognize this transition for you as you transition from being an official public servant to someone who we know will continue to be involved in the life of this community. It is a time for us to reflect on all of the things you have given to us and all of the sacrifices you have made on our behalf so that we could count on having a clerk’s office that was efficient and effective and welcoming at a place that we look to for integrity. Because one of the most important things about the clerk’s office is the tremendous amount of information that flows through there, and a lot of that is sensitive information, personal information, and it’s important information, and it has to be has to be addressed in the right way,” Tarr said.
Tarr added that a the clerk’s office “is the hub of information for the community and we never doubted that it would be handled appropriately, that we could access the information when we needed it, that sensitive information would be treated appropriately. And for Brad (Jones) and I, every two years, in many ways, we put our fate in your hands. And we always felt comfortable in doing that.
He continued, “We always had trust in you because certainly one of the bedrock elements of our society is the ability to have elections that have integrity and are free and are fair. And for all of the legislation that passes at the state and the federal level, and all the things we do in terms policy, those things come down to a person in the form of a clerk who makes sure that they’re executed faithfully and properly and have attention to detail.”
Pointing out the tremendous changes in the election process during the past few years and during the era of COVID, Tarr said “one of the important things is our democracy has continued, and it has continued in this town because Barbara, you have made sure that everyone could still vote, could trust the vote, and that people could operate in a way that honors that democracy.”
He commended her on the time, focus and devotion to her duty she always demonstrated while still being a warm, friendly face whenever anyone would stop by her office.
“Those qualities are really precious. So it is a bittersweet time that you might not be in that office but the smile will still be there, the concern for the community will still be there and the fact that you are our friend will still be there,” he said.
Tarr brought a citations from his colleagues in the Senate as well as a citation from Gov. Charlie Baker.
State Rep. Brad Jones commented on how Barbara has been a “fixture” at Town Hall for so many years and how being a town residents means you never really get to leave the job behind.
“It’s tough work and these days it is tougher than ever. What a week you had! You had an election that went off without a hitch and North Reading had the highest margin of success of all 12 communities and we’re going to end it with a blizzard!” Jones said.
Jones thanked Barbara for her “grace, poise and professionalism” as well as being “a great friend to me and a great friend to the community.” He recalled that she always remembered to send him a specimen ballot too. “I have a stack of them that I had the good fortune of being on,” he said.
Jones added, “You have been a consummate professional. It has been a challenging time to be in public office and involved in elections. It is bittersweet – bitter that we will be losing you but sweet that you will be a full time grandmother now and will have more time for family and friends.”
Jones presented her with a citation from the House of Representatives in recognition of her 40 years of service to the town, including 24 as Town Clerk.
When Town Moderator John Murphy took to the podium he said, “I wouldn’t miss this day for anything. I met this young lady 27 years ago when I moved to North Reading with my wife and family… I could always reach out to her and seek her counsel and advice. She also is a sounding board for when something happens at Town Meeting and she can calm me down on the stage or calm me down the day after. She is just such a wonderful person. I am going to miss you terribly. Do not change your phone number because I am going to text you!”
“These last two years have been difficult and Barbara and I probably spent more time together during ‘COVID Town Meetings’ than a five-year period of regular Town Meetings. It has been an incredible journey and I am so happy for you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I love you. You are a great person!” Murphy said.
Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto commented the breadth of the issues he worries about every day “is very, very wide” and consume the limited resources of time. But he always felt fortunate that he “never had to worry about the Town Clerk’s office or elections. Not just because of what I saw, but because of the faith you all showed me that you had in Barbara. You really are the consummate professional and somebody I felt I could talk to honestly, and you would always tell me exactly how it was. That’s not easy to do.”
Liane Gonzalez, vice chairwoman of the Select Board, also thanked Barbara for her professionalism. “We always as a board had complete confidence in anything that you would tell us. We never had to question it,” she said. Mrs. Stats was presented a plaque of a photograph of the Town Common from the Select Board on behalf of the community and inscribed, in part, with the words “…in recognition of 40 years of dedicated service to the Town of North Reading, including 24 years as Town Clerk.”
Her son, Fire Chief Don Stats, along with Deputy Chief Barry Galvin and Firefighter Mike Tannian, also presented a plaque to her on behalf of the North Reading Fire Department.
Noting that her tenure began in 1981 and she became Town Clerk in 1998, the position she has held through her retirement in 2022, the chief recalled the many hours she spent at home working on her laptop after hours.
“Commitment, dedication and loyalty are qualities that are difficult to measure but are easily recognizable in how departments and events are run and organized or in discussions with those persons whose profession has become their life’s work,” Chief Stats said, adding that these qualities are always evident in the time and preparation that his mother and her staff always devoted to the running of elections and town meetings.
Noting that his mother always said how special it was for her to administer the oath of office to so many public servants, including him, now that the tables are turned, he said it was very special for him to be able to recognize “my mother’s contributions to the town and to congratulate her on her well-deserved retirement.”
Barbara’s colleagues at the Town Hall bought her a gift of wooden table lamp embossed with the Town Seal. They concluded the day’s event by singing an original song penned by Utilities Superintendent Mark Clark entitled “Bye, Bye, Barb Stats” while he played the guitar.
