By Andrew Martins, Managing Editor
Nearly four decades of service to Hillsborough Township is coming to an end for one vivacious senior citizen, as members of the Township Committee joined Mayor Frank DelCore to honor the career of Betty York on Tuesday.
Since 1979, when the police department was located on East Mountain Road, Ms. York has been working as a records secretary for the Hillsborough Township Police Department.
“(My retirement) is hard because it’s been a very good time working there,” Ms. York said. “I met a lot of good people and had a lot of good friends.”
Ms. York’s career spans more than just decades, as Mr. DelCore pointed out that she has served under five of the six police chiefs to serve since the inception of the Hillsborough Police Department in 1964.
“Betty’s dedication and service to the township of Hillsborough has been exemplary,” Mr. DelCore said.
As a long-time member of the records bureau, Ms. York worked to fulfil requests for information from within the department, as well as the general public.
Hillsborough Police Chief Darren Powell said that type of position is “very crucial” to the department’s operation and that Ms. York handled it with poise.
“All of our administrative positions are very crucial,” he said. “They do a lot of work and a lot of times they’re dealing with sensitive, confidential information, where they have a certain degree of responsibility to protect that information, which was a very important part of what Ms. York did.”
Since joining the Hillsborough Police Department in 1999, Chief Powell said he never heard any complaints about Ms. York’s service.
“I always got positive remarks about how (Ms. York) treated people, how helpful she was and her friendly, courteous demeanor around headquarters,” Chief Powell said. “She always kind of got together, almost like a family and she was very good for the morale and cohesiveness of the department.”
Looking forward, Chief Powell said he was unsure when he would be able to seek a replacement for Ms. York, because she is still using her accrued paid time off before she is officially off the roster. Regardless, he hopes to begin the process soon.
Now that she has the retired life ahead of her, Ms. York said she “hasn’t put a lot of thought” into what will occupy her time.
“There’s always something to do,” she said. “I have lots of grandkids.”
