Newport City Hall's steady hand waves goodbye

• Swarthout and mayor

Wanda Swarthout (left), the city of Newport’s longtime deputy city clerk, was honored last week for her more than 22 years of service. She is set to retire next week. Mayor Tim Geraghty declared the week of Aug. 1-5 “Wanda Swarthout Week.” Bulletin photo by Jon Avise

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Since Wanda Swarthout, the city of Newport’s deputy clerk, joined the tiny City Hall staff in 1989, she’s seen three city administrators, a trio of mayors and 17 city council members lead the small city through highway construction and high water.

City officials on Thursday honored Swarthout, who retires Aug. 3, after more than 22 years of taking meeting minutes, issuing licenses and permits, and, Mayor Tim Geraghty said, befriending everyone who has served the city.

Since she started with the city of Newport on Jan. 9, 1989, Swarthout has made the daily100-mile roundtrip commute from her home in Zumbrota, burning through more vehicles than she says she can remember.

If not the drive, what will she miss?

“Oh, the people,” Swarthout said. “The great friends, the employees — they are the best.”

She joined the city of Newport in 1989, following then-city administrator Gary Patterson from his former job in Zumbrota, where she was working part-time and her husband of 45 years was also employed.

“He said, ‘Come up and see what happens.’ And I did,” Swarthout said. “Never in a million years” did she expect to be in Newport for more than 22 years.

Swarthout is someone “liked by everyone,” the city’s mayor said during a gathering honoring Swarthout after last week’s city council meeting. Geraghty praised her loyalty to the city, and declared the first week of August “Wanda Swarthout Week.”

“It’s a bittersweet thing,” said Geraghty, who was a city council member when Swarthout joined Newport’s staff in 1989, and has served two stints as mayor in the time she has been at City Hall. “We’re happy for her retirement, but it’s a loss for the city.”

Swarthout accepted an early retirement offer from the city earlier this year as City Administrator Brian Anderson and council members looked to cut Newport’s reliance on state funding to balance its budget.

“She’ll be hard to replace,” said council member Tom Ingemann, who has been involved with the Newport Fire Department for more than 20 years.

But after two decades of helping see Newport through the massive Highway 61 and Wakota Bridge reconstruction projects, spring flooding on the Mississippi River and various political upheavals, Swarthout — a constant feature in Newport for 22 years — is ready to take it easy.

“I’m just going to sit back and relax and enjoy our grandkids,” she said.

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