Hanna treasurer retires

Pam Paulson took her first bookkeeping class at Hanna High School.

Although not born in Carbon County, Paulson came to the town a little before the mining boom in the 1980s and Hanna was the place she got her education from first grade to graduation. She remembers, as a young child, living in apartments near the railroad track before the family moved into their home.

Paulson graduated and went to work at Shirley Basin. She started driving a truck and then was put in the accounting department.

Paulson worked a few years in Carbon County before moving to Montana, Alaska and then Montana again.

Her mother still lived in Hanna but Paulson's aunt wanted to move to Washington state, which would leave Paulson's mother alone. Her aunt wanted Paulson to buy her house and Paulson considered doing so with the idea of renting it out. Paulson started considering a move back to Hanna when her mother told her about the treasurer position opening up, although it had been years since she had lived in the town.

That was 13 years ago and Paulson has been the treasurer ever since.

"I was Mom's companion until she passed away two years ago," Paulson said. "For 11 years I got to see mom every day and we went for drives and shopped and did many things together."

Paulson said she reconnected with people she had gone to high school with.

She said, when growing up, the town was centered around the school.

"All the school activities were a big deal for Hanna," Paulson remembered. "All the plays and sports were what the town went to."

Paulson said she has a varied job background that got her ready for the treasurer position.

"What set me up most for this job, was when I was the payroll supervisor for a mobile construction company in Alaska," Paulson said. "We had 1500 people on the slope and 100 people in the office. "

The job in Alaska may have given her the experience to handle the treasurer position, but she said it was during her job at the Shirley Basin uranium mines that she realized how much she liked accounting.

"I went from school to work in the pit where I initially drove a truck," Paulson remembered. "Then, in my third year there, I was brought into the office and started helping with payroll. Shirley Basin was the place I got my love for doing payroll."

She transferred from Shirley Basin to Jeffery City.

"I was the person who hired and interviewed the statistician; I had to keep track of all the overburden that was hauled off and payroll supervisor there," Paulson said. "The Alaska job cemented my love for numbers."

When Paulson moved back to Montana, she was a bookkeeper for a chiropractor and then a logging company. Then she got a position at a large grocery store where her job was to reconcile all the monies from the registers and did this for 11 years.

She said her background and love of accounting was useful, but government accounting was different.

"We do fund accounting and you have state statutes you have to follow," Paulson explained. "Then there is the Government Accounting Principles, which was all foreign to me when I started. But I learned."

She said the Wyoming Association of Municipality Clerks and Treasurers (WAMCAT) was a big resource for her.

"There was an annual retreat for this organization that lasted for about three days where you could talk to other treasurers," Paulson said. "I learned a lot there and then there were those in the state that were my go-to people if I had a question about payroll or accounting."

She said WAMCAT was useful and that she learned many aspects about the treasurer's job from this organization.

Paulson estimates that it took about three years before she felt comfortable in the job.

"Budgets come once a year and it takes time to understand it all," Paulson said. "Then there was the software. I probably drove a lot of people nuts with questions as l learned, but it made sense to learn it right in the beginning."

She said the software the town used for accounting the first six years was changed.

"That was challenging," Paulson said. "Doreen Harvey out of Encampment helped me a lot. I really appreciate all her help. Karen Heath in Medicine Bow also was another person I talked to about the job. Suzie Cox out of Saratoga was always helpful too."

She said the largest challenge was the transition period of new mayors coming into the job and her helping them understand how the accounting worked for the town.

"I have enjoyed my years working in the job," Paulson said. "I have worked under three mayors and all are different. A handful of employees have been here as long as I have and they have become like my second family. I am going to miss them."

Paulson said that the reason she decided to retire was because she wanted to enjoy life while she was healthy and young enough. Her son lives nearby and she looks forward to spending time with her granddaughter.

"I want to be able to work out in my yard on nice days and not walk in the front door of work and wish I was home," Paulson said. "I want to make quilts for my grandchildren and I want to get up when I want to, do what I want. It will be my time now."

She wishes her replacement, Ann Calvert, the best of luck.

"I will miss the job and the people and will be grateful for the memories, but now it is time to start to make memories in another way," Paulson concluded.