By: Jennifer Potash
After 22 years at the front desk, or the front lines some might say, of the Princeton Borough Clerk’s Office, Deputy Clerk Margaret "Peggy" Whitlock is stepping down.
She plans to retire by the end of year.
The daily tasks of directing people to the appropriate offices in Borough Hall, working on passport applications while the lines outside the counter fall six or seven people deep, may seem a daunting experience. But the customer service aspect of her job is what Ms. Whitlock said she has enjoyed the most.
"It’s a very busy job, but I’ve met a lot of wonderful and interesting people," she said.
The borough itself has undergone many changes in the two decades of her employment, she said.
As the downtown has grown and added more restaurants and apartments, the demand for parking has increased along with questions from visitors and residents about where to park their cars, she said.
There have been some trying times such as when Borough Hall was renovated for a year and the clerk’s office occupied a single room in the temporary headquarters that was less than half the space it had in Borough Hall, she recalled.
Once in a while Ms. Whitlock would fill in for Borough Clerk Penelope Edwards-Carter at Borough Council meetings.
A peculiar phenomenon seemed to occur at each of those meetings – the agenda on paper was brief but the meetings were very long.
"Maybe it was me," she quipped.
One benefit to the job in the last six years was working with her son Scott, who is the deputy borough engineer.
"It’s been very nice having Scott here," she said, adding the two of them occasionally took lunch breaks together.
In her retirement Ms. Whitlock, a Hopewell resident, said she hopes to travel and spend time with her grandchildren and family.
