HAWLEY — Voters will see a familiar face when they’re casting their ballots this November. Pamela Shrimpton, retired town clerk, will return to her role temporarily to fulfill election duties after Town Clerk Donna Lemoine resigned earlier this week.

Lemoine submitted her resignation on Sept. 30, effective immediately. Her two-sentence letter to the Selectboard did not give a reason for her decision, and requested the board contact her to arrange for the return of any work materials in her possession.

Lemoine was first appointed as Hawley town clerk in the winter of 2023, to fill the role after the departure of Liz Billings. At the end of Billings’ remaining term, Lemoine was elected to the position.

During a meeting Thursday to discuss how to handle election responsibilities following Lemoine’s resignation, Selectboard members discussed the challenges clerks in small towns like Hawley face. These include increasing responsibilities and minimal pay.

“I do think there is an overarching trend that this is a small town, these are part-time positions that are meagerly compensated and with rapidly escalating responsibilities,” said Selectboard member Hussain Hamdan.

The town clerk serves as the town’s chief election officer, as well as record keeper. The clerk is responsible for managing public records requests, handling the minutes from various board meetings, and maintaining vital records such as birth and death certificates, dog licenses and marriage licenses.

In Hawley, the position is a part-time elected position. For fiscal year 2025, $12,475 was budgeted for the position.

“The town clerk has to be compensated much, much more than he or she is, because the state keeps throwing more work at this person,” Administrative Assistant Tinky Weisblat said. “There was just constant stuff coming in that she had to learn to do. I know we have a limited budget but that is something we’re going to have to think about.”

Hamdan mentioned that when the state mandated that towns offer early in-person voting, the goal was to cut down on lines and waiting times for people attempting to cast ballots in big cities, but in small towns like Hawley where populations can more easily vote in one day, the mandates just created more work for town clerks.

“It’s great for cities because you want to keep lines down at the polls,” Hamdan said, “but here all it resulted in is the town clerk has to come in more and conduct this election work.”

With Lemoine’s departure so close to the election, the board was unable to schedule a special election to find a new town clerk. Selectboard Chair Will Cosby said town counsel advised they would be able to hire and appoint a town clerk in the interim.

Shrimpton, who was town clerk for nine years, agreed to reprise her role, but only for election purposes, Weisblat said. After the election is over in November, she will step down and the town will need to find another town clerk.

The Selectboard discussed the need to review the job description and salary for the position, and added that if no one takes out nomination papers in March, they may need to consider making the position an appointed one rather than elected. This change would require Town Meeting approval. This would allow the board to interview and hire a candidate who is not necessarily a resident of Hawley, and has experience in record keeping, election management and other town clerk responsibilities.

“In a lot of smaller towns they’ve had to move to hiring a town clerk, and thereby appointing the person as opposed to electing one of the residents,” Cosby said. “I’m not trying to appoint somebody, but if no one wants to step forward by the time the nomination papers are issued, our discussions will move toward how do we make an appointment work.”

Shrimpton was sworn in on Thursday. Cosby said he would speak with Shrimpton later to hammer out details of her pay and responsibilities.

“I cannot tell you enough how grateful I am,” Cosby said to Shrimpton.

Shrimpton is expected to begin work on Saturday, Oct. 19, when in-person early voting will be open from 11 a.m to 3 p.m., but she will likely come to the Town Office on Tuesday to go over new software and election mandates from the state, according to Weisblat.

Early voting hours are on Tuesdays and Saturdays in Hawley. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.