PRINCE EDWARD – It's early December and 2012 is drawing to a close. It has been an eventful year, but the clock is ticking.

By December's end, County Treasurer Mable Shanaberger will have closed the book on her storied career.

“…When I made my announcement I was going to retire, I said then I wanted to stay 'til the end of the year to see us through this tax season,” Shanaberger told The Herald. “And I'm doing that.”

It has only been a few months since she confirmed retirement plans because of heath concerns, including voice issues. The voice is, of course, still not what it was, but is a little more stronger some times than others.

She explains that it has been determined that her left vocal chord is paralyzed so the sounds she is able to make come for the right.

But the treasurer's office work must go on.

County voters in a December 11 special election (after the interview) tapped Donna Nunnally as the next treasurer. Nunnally will serve out the three remaining years of Shanaberger's term.

But on this day, Shanaberger is still the county's treasurer and there's time for reflection.

Shanaberger, who turned 73 in September, was elected in 1991. She has worked in the County treasurer's office since 1981, holding the position of chief deputy for eight years prior to becoming treasurer.

Thirty-one years is a long time to stay anywhere these days and, while it would take some detailed research into the County's rich history, she could well be one of, if not the longest serving treasurer.

This tax season, she relates, has been different in some ways than those in the past. She's getting personal notes in the bills. Some know she's retiring, reflecting on one she received that day where the writer (who had been pre-paying taxes) sent in her final payment and thanked her for all of her kindness.

“…That's kind of nice,” Shanaberger says, “because most people don't want to pay taxes. I don't either, but I try to show some compassion and I guess I did with that lady any way. Try to be understanding, but at the same time know and follow through on the fact the county expects me to collect the money.”

There is a bank of knowledge. Turning the pages of the ledger back decades, she remembers being surprised when she first came to work there at who does not pay, offering a brief chuckle.

Now, she offers, when someone doesn't pay she's not quite as shocked as she was then.

In the early days, long before the 1999 courthouse addition, the treasurer's office was still in the antiquated structure down one of the industrial-painted hallways on the top floor.

The space may have been next to the current office location, but there is little other comparison between the two offices.

“…When I first came to work here, our real estate tickets were printed by a company in Richmond…Once we got the personal property book from the commissioner's office, we sat and typed each personal property bill to go out,” Shanaberger recalled.

Three copies, as she remembers it. One to mail out; two were kept in a book. When someone came in to pay, the two were torn out, stamped paid. One was given to the customer; the other kept for records.

There may have been an electric typewriter in those early days and Shanaberger remembers electric adding machines, though hers was the non-electric manual type with a crank handle and push-button numbers.

“And I would jokingly tell people, 'Well come on in… if the power's out, I can take your money…,'” she recalled.

Shanaberger began, of course, as a clerk working the window. Hilda Mahan was the County's treasurer then.

And she began at decal time.

“…I never mind working the counter,” Shanaberger says. “I like doing that. I, when I got back here (in her office)…I missed working at the counter. I guess that's why a note in the mail means a lot to me because I don't have the personal contact that I once did.”

In those early days, the treasurer's office would sell decals in the community, with staff carrying decals and the tax records as well to know who had and who hadn't paid.

The treasurer's office shifted to computer use when Lucy Shorter was treasurer, though it is nothing like the current system, which has much more capability.

Shorter would succeed Mahan and, upon her retirement, Shanaberger opted to run. That first election, she had to earn the Democratic Party banner in a primary and, with it being a redistricting year, the primary race-which normally would have been in June-was held in September.

Shanaberger reflected that she made it her goal to knock on everyone's door.

“There were a few doors I missed-because if I saw a gate, I did not open it to go in,” she said.

And she was bitten on one occasion. Having gone to the door of a house where no one was home, she left her card and started back to the car and, as she was watching a black dog, a brown one slipped behind her and bit her on the ankle.

As for the goal, Shanaberger figures she reached all but about 100 houses before the primary and visited the remainder before the November election.

“So I did achieve it,” she said. “But I wouldn't attempt it now. There's so many more houses here, so many more families that I wouldn't have dreamed of trying it again.”

Still, there may well have been a lasting connection.

Before Serving As Treasurer

Turning the clock back a bit further, long before her days in the treasurer's office, Shanaberger studied at Longwood to be teacher. She took her first classroom job at Randolph-Henry in 1961 teaching health and physical education. As a measure of how things change, in 1962, expecting mothers were not allowed to teach. And when she and her husband Frank were expecting their first child she stopped working once a substitute (a student teacher) was able to step in.

Shanaberger didn't go back until their youngest had entered kindergarten, re-starting as a substitute teacher before going full-time at Prince Edward Academy-initially beginning with physical education and then teaching science. Her last teaching year, she taught science in the County's schools.

She went to work at the Amelia Dress Factory at its manufacturing facility off of east Third Street in Farmville in 1979. Treasurer Mahan called and offered her a job, which after a few days of thinking about it, she decided to take.

“I had always said I'd never work in an office,” Shanaberger reflected. “My dad…didn't want me to come to Longwood, he wanted me to go to business school in Richmond. 'Dad,' I said, 'Daddy, I'll never work in an office.'”

She adds, “So much for saying never.”

And, what is an interesting twist: Shanaberger's dad worked for the state taxation department. (In those days, localities didn't hire companies to conduct reassessments and appraisals; that was done through the state. Her father did the first appraisal for the Stackpole building.)

He passed away before seeing her become county treasurer.

Running For Treasurer

When she first came to work at the treasurer's office, being treasurer was the furthest thing from her mind, she says.

She and Shorter, she would note, are about the same age and when Shorter ran Shanaberger figured when Shorter left, she would too-since they both would be retirement age at the same time.

But, after Shorter wasn't going to stay but the two terms, Shanaberger cited, “I thought, well, I don't particularly want to stay on as a deputy and have somebody else now come in as treasurer.”

Mahan had advised her when she stepped down that if Shorter didn't run, that she should because she could do the job.

“And so I got to thinking about it and I thought, well, why not try?” Shanaberger said.

She won the primary by 74 votes. She's had little opposition since that first race and has won convincingly when there were other candidates-even last year's race, when Shanaberger was at the Moore Center and not able to campaign much.

She offered that it made her feel good to know the people still believed in her. While she also notes many did not know she was at the Moore Center, she had not been out campaigning and seen a lot.

But she had the backing of the Democratic Party, she notes, which she is sure helped a lot.

“I have mixed feelings,” she concedes. “I had planned for this to be my last term so…really I had planned to retire in three years from now, not now,” Shanaberger said.

In some ways, she adds, it bothers her a little bit. She had set the goal.

Still, in addition to the voice issue, she has had other health issues as well.

The Staff

She has missed time in the office and she points to the effort of her staff.

“When I was out sick,” she said, “they ran the office. And I didn't worry about the office because I knew they were capable of doing it.”

They would bring work to her when she was out at the hospital in Farmville and at the Moore Center; she noted that she worked over and reconciled a lot of trial balances, did the format for the treasurer's report and one of her staff would usually type it up and get it to the board.

She noted, “So we didn't get as far behind as we could have.”

“A lot of people thought I wasn't doing anything and didn't know what was going on and they (the staff) kept me informed. They would call or I would tell (them) what needed to be done,” she reflected.

Though she may not have been behind her desk, she adds, she was still doing the work of the county.

“And they could do the job well enough that they didn't have to call me every day or anything like that. It's just if something special thing came up, something questionable or something (like that),” Shanaberger related.

There has actually been very little turnover in the treasurer's office in recent years. One of the ladies, she cites, has been there almost as long as she.

Shanaberger says she's proud of what they've been able to do in the office and feels like she has accomplished a lot. Hopefully she said, she hasn't made too many people mad because she was doing her job collecting their taxes.

The Test Of Time

When the final chapter closes, Shanaberger will be one of the longest serving Prince Edward Treasurers.

She has liked her job, working with the public who are less than happy.

And enjoying the job, she says, is why she has stayed as long as she has.

Prince Edward, she cites, has one of the better collection rates. (She's even been known to knock on the door of businesses in town to talk about what was owed and to try to collect delinquent taxes. Sometimes successful; sometimes not.)

“…I didn't start out trying to set about any record for anything, it's just each time when nearing a term ending…I look at it and think, well, do I want to run again? What would I do if I don't run and so I'd opt for running again,” she would also note.

With the support of her family, she agreed.

“At least I feel like I was doing something worthwhile here serving the community,” she said, noting the motto of the Treasurer's Association of Virginia is “Elected to Serve.”

The Future

Shanaberger figures she'll stay home for awhile, but has a feeling that after a point she'll feel like she needs to get out and do something.

“The first thing I will probably do is check with the library,” she says. “Where we live-I don't live far from that now and have always loved books and always loved reading.”

She figures she'll check to see if there's something she can do as a volunteer to be of some assistance.

Shanaberger says she doesn't want to sit down and do nothing-also noting there are other activities at the Woodland that she can get involved in as well.

“…It's an interesting job,” she sums. “And I hope that whoever gets it will enjoy it as much as I have.”