STONE HARBOR – At the Stone Harbor Borough Council meeting June 21, Clerk Suzanne Stanford was absent from her position at the left hand of Mayor Judith Davies-Dunhour.
Stanford, who desired avoiding the limelight, was absent from her last meeting as borough clerk after serving in that role for longer than anyone could mention at the meeting.
State pension records confirm what Davies-Dunhour said at the meeting. Stanford has worked serving Stone Harbor in one role or another for 49.5 years.
Davies-Dunhour remarked, “Sue Stanford has devoted a lifetime to Stone Harbor.”
The mayor added that she has known Stanford for all of those 50 years, working alongside her for 38 of them.
“I wish her the best in retirement,” the mayor said. “I suspect I’ll be calling her every once in a while for a little help, too.”
Serving the borough and the public for so long brings with it memory and experience that will be hard to replace. Davies-Dunhour noted that “the institutional knowledge and the love of Stone Harbor that she brought to the Clerk’s Office will never be matched.”
The person who has to step into those oversized shoes is new Borough Clerk Kim Stevenson. According to Davies-Dunhour, Stevenson was appointed to the clerk position at the June 21 meeting of the council following a closed session, so the appointment may have been missed by members of the public who only saw the regular meeting.
Stevenson is no stranger to Stone Harbor. She began working in the borough, in 2011, serving as utilities collector. Stevenson became assistant to the borough administrator in February 2014, a position that afforded a broad exposure to borough issues and departments.
Prior to coming to Stone Harbor, Stevenson worked for 13 years as clerk to the Lower Township Municipal Utilities Authority.
