# New position will smooth communication, save money

BELLAIRE A newly established position will be of great benefit to the Village of Bellaire in the coming years.

The position of Administrative Assistant to the Village of Bellaire will facilitate better communication with village officials in addition to smoothing out the communication lines between neighboring municipalities and court systems in the Ohio Valley. In the long run, it will even save the village a bit of money.

Prior to the establishment of this position, there were three secretaries (one full-time, two part-time) under employment by the village, Village Administrator Dan Marling explained.

Robin Stephens, who worked in Bellaire for more than 14 years as the Mayor’s Secretary (serving under three different mayors), was instrumental in assisting the village with creating a job description for the new position, although she decided not to apply for it.

“We as a village absolutely want to thank her for her years of service here, and we want to wish her well in her new employment endeavors,” Marling said of Stephens.

Approximately a dozen people applied for the position, six of whom were interviewed. After some narrowing down, the candidate hired was LaWanda McCain, who officially began her new job on Monday.

McCain has an associate’s degree in Criminal Justice and is close to attaining her bachelor’s in Psychology. She also plans to pursue a master’s in Criminal Psychology. Additionally, McCain has technical and software experience that could greatly benefit the village.

“We had a lot of quality candidates. There were some very good people who applied for the position,” Marling said. (McCain) got the nod. She has a background in the criminal justice side of things with correctional institutions. That’s a plus when it comes to being the Clerk of Courts for the village. She’ll be able to fall right into place with that.”

“I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s nice to get to know new people,” McCain said of her new position. “It’s sort of a new way of doing things. I’m from a fairly large company out of Indianapolis very high-tech and twenty-first century. So, it’s nice to be able to work with the Village of Bellaire and help get them to that spot. It’s economical. It’s going to save the village a lot of money by coming up to the twenty-first century.”

McCain has already made an impact in her new job, according to Marling, which is helping the village to move forward technologically.

“LaWanda has been instrumental in getting all of the supervisors, the Administrator and the Code Enforcer on a calendar using Outlook, so we’re all linked now,” said Marling.

The new system will enable village officials to communicate more effectively with one another and with other municipalities and, thus, be more productive than was possible with the old system. Even something as simple as using email more than “snail mail” can be of great benefit to the village in the way of smoothing communication lines and saving a bit of money.

“It’s a good place to start just using email more than the postal service,” McCain said. “It’s going to save cost just in itself. A lot of people don’t think that a postage stamp could save money, but it adds up. It’s some place small to start, and then we can go from there.”

“We’re being very progressive in this whole opportunity,” Marling said.