Walden, now retiring, served Sheridan for more than 18 years

By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com

The Town of Sheridan’s financial records and security have been handled under the watchful eye of Clerk-Treasurer Elizabeth Walden for nearly 19 years. She will retire from that office effective Friday, Oct. 2.

The Reporter spoke with Walden about her time in office, her decision to leave before her term would have ended on Dec. 31, 2027, and how anyone interested in becoming Sheridan’s next Clerk-Treasurer can be apply to take responsibility for running that office until next year’s election puts that decision in the hands of voters.

Walden took office on Jan. 1, 2008. During her tenure, all of Hamilton County has grown.

“Back then, Westfield was still agricultural,” Walden said.  “Fishers wasn’t nearly as big as it is now. Noblesville and Carmel have always been big, but Westfield and Fishers have really just exploded over my lifetime since I started as Clerk-Treasurer.”

Walden became clerk-treasurer following a 27-year career in banking. She told The Reporter she had been given a promotion at her bank, which she did not want and had in fact turned down.

“I refused it, but they went ahead and promoted me,” Walden said. “So I did it for about three years and just wasn’t happy. When I heard Connie Pearson was going to retire. I thought, maybe I’ll give this a try. So I ran and I was elected.”

Walden told The Reporter she has both enjoyed and found a deeper level of fulfillment in her role with Sheridan than during the final years of her banking career.

“I’m excited to see the growth coming and the changes happening,” Walden said. “There are improvements on Main Street and groups are getting very active to promote Main Street. We’ve done several of the Community Crossings grants to work on streets and things, which is great. A lot more needs to be worked on, but you can only do so much at a time. The Monon Trail extension is exciting now that it is all the way through Hamilton County. We see people bicycling on it all the time and then going through town.”

Walden spoke with a group of approximately 30 senior citizen ladies who rode their bikes up the trail and stopped at a coffee shop on Main Street.

“They came from Osborne Trails there in Westfield,” Walden said. “I’m so excited they could jump on the Monon right up here and have a destination to come and have coffee and a little snack or something.”

Walden told The Reporter she had originally planned not only to serve out this term, but to run for one more before retiring. She cited the growth, changes, and added stressors in the last few years as contributing to her leaving office early. Walden said her children pushed her to retire because they saw the level of stress she was under.

When asked what she will do after leaving office, Walden said that is a question she hears often.

“The first thing I’m going to do is I’m going to focus on me,” Walden said. “I took care of my parents for years, and they both have passed away. So I need to focus on me and take better care of myself. I want to get into an exercise routine and just do things that I’d like to do.”

Sheridan’s next clerk-treasurer

By Indiana statute, since Walden is a Republican, the Hamilton County Republican Party has to fill her office within 30 days of her departure.

Now that Walden is leaving office early, her position will be filled through the end of 2027 by appointment. Under normal circumstances, that would be done through a caucus, but Sheridan has too few precinct committeemen (PCs) to hold a caucus at this time.

Because Beth Sheller is both Hamilton County Election Administrator and also Hamilton County Republican Party Secretary, The Reporter spoke with her about the process of filling Walden’s position.

Sheller told The Reporter that three PCs were removed from their positions on July 14 because they had moved out of Sheridan. Hamilton County Republican Party Chair Mario Massillamany will appoint new people to fill those elected positions, but since none have been appointed yet, Clerk-Treasurer Walden’s replacement will fall to Massillamany as well.

“There’s only one PC there in Sheridan right now, which in turn allows Mario to be the one to appoint,” Sheller said. “So there won’t be a caucus. It will just be that Mario will appoint the replacement.”

That appointment will come from the pool of people who apply for the position, but that application process is also different due to the lack of PCs.

Ordinarily, those applying have to fill out forms at the Election Office to be placed on the caucus ballot, and thus to be voted on by PCs. In this instance, people can simply send an email to Sheller, in her capacity as county GOP secretary, at Beth@HamiltonCountyGOP.org.

“I know people get super confused on that, because they’ll bring in the forms and everything to me, and I just accept them here, usually, for running a regular caucus,” Sheller said. “But [this time] it’s not an election administrator thing. Typically, we’d set up the caucus and I probably would have already notified the PCs at this point. But there won’t be one. When the chair appoints, they don’t even fill out any paperwork to do that. Typically they would have 72 hours ahead. They’d have to give me this paperwork saying I’m running in the caucus. It’s just so very different when they’re appointed.”

It is likely the appointment will be made on Oct. 2 so Sheridan will not have a gap in clerk-treasurer service.

Walden said she is willing to talk to those who would like to know the details of how the clerk-treasurer’s office runs now, so they will not step into a job they know nothing about.

State statute spells out the duties of a clerk-treasurer, but every town is different. In Sheridan’s case, Walden said there is a lot of work involving payroll, utility billing, and collections.

Anyone who would like to speak with Walden with questions about the position should email her at ewalden@sheridan.in.gov.

Those interested in being considered to fill the remainder of Walden’s term as clerk-treasurer for Sheridan should email Hamilton County Republican Party Secretary Beth Sheller at Beth@HamiltonCountyGOP.org.

Walden asked that we end this article with her personal thanks to Sheridan.

“I just want to thank the community, my residents, for allowing me the opportunity to serve as clerk treasurer,” Walden said. “I’ve appreciated it. I’m just trying to be as open and transparent as I could be with people. And I love my community.”