It can’t be easy to follow in the footsteps of a 42-year city employee whose position you now hold, but that’s exactly the situation Perryville City Clerk Lydia Rellergert finds herself in.
On the following Monday after Tracy Prost retired on Oct. 4, Rellergert began her duties as city clerk. In actuality, though, she began her training under Prost’s supervision beginning in the middle of May. While some might feel uncomfortable in the role, Rellergert believes the job of city clerk is one for which she is well prepared.
“My background is in regional planning, so I did a lot of grant administration work and plans in my region back in Poplar Bluff. Then, when Shaun and I knew we were getting married and making plans, I got connections with the Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission (RPC) up here. I transferred and started working in this region a little bit.
“Then this job came open. In the RPC world, you move around a lot. You work with a ton of different communities, and that's really fun. You get to meet a lot of cool people. There's something else about just working with one community that was a draw for me. A job like this doesn't come open very often, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see if it was a fit for me.”
Rellergert and her husband moved to Perryville after getting married seven months ago. Shaun, who is from Uniontown, was moving back close to home, but his young wife quickly fell in love with the town of 8,555 people.
“I think the street appeal is cute,” she said. “I hate to use that word, but you're just like, ‘Wow, it’s like a hidden gem.’ And so, I never really ventured up here much growing up, even though I wasn’t far away.”
According to Rellergert, training under Prost prepared her for dealing with the range of responsibilities she tackles on a daily basis.
“It’s different every day,” she said. “You never know what might happen. Tracy and I sat here in this office, and I watched her work. She’s a busy bee sometimes, and like I said, you never know what kind of things may pop up during the day. You may be working on something and then you have to pause and move to something else. Then you’re down a trail. I have a background in some of the projects. I know that Perryville has been involved in a huge initiative the last several years improving infrastructure.
“You see that with the roads that are going in, the wastewater treatment plant and the things they’re doing with the lift stations. I’m very comfortable in that wheelhouse because those were a lot of the projects I worked on with communities through RBC. Just coming in and seeing all that’s happening in one community — and to be the size of Perryville — that’s what’s phenomenal! If you just saw Perryville’s resume, you would think we’re much larger than what we are.”
One of Rellergert’s major responsibilities is assisting City Administrator Brent Buerck with his duties. Asked about her working relationship with Buerck, she said, “It’s going well. It's developing every day. He relied a lot on Tracy’s wisdom and guidance. I'm curious to see how our relationship develops.”
Rellergert also works closely with Mayor Larry Riney, who she describes as “amazing.”
“He’s a lot of fun. I don’t know who couldn’t like Mr. Riney.”
And what has she enjoyed most about her new job so far?
“I think just learning about Perryville,” she said. “I'm an outsider coming in, and I'm here to stay. This is where we want to raise our family, so that’s a big thing.”
While she receives a lot of support from her fellow employees at city hall, Rellergert said her husband is glad she’s working for the city.
“He's excited for me. He's very supportive. I don't talk a lot of shop a lot of times, but the things we do talk about, he thinks it’s really cool — like the wastewater treatment plant and hearing about the infrastructure project. Those are big deal things.”
As she thinks about the years ahead, Rellergert is looking forward to the journey.
“I’m interested in seeing where this takes us,” she said. “They’re big shoes to follow after Tracy, but we had a great cross-training session together.
Perryville has been focusing a lot on infrastructure and now we’re getting to the end of that list of projects. It’s kind of, ‘What’s next?’ I think we’re going to be moving from the needs list to the wish list. It will be exciting to see.”
