{Outgoing Clerk Walt Kershenski(seated) with Julie Scheuerlein, incoming Clerk}
On January 1, 2018, Walt Kershenski can stay in bed a little later and help more around the house. He will officially be retired.
Kershenski, 71, has held the position of Stafford Town Clerk since June of 2004.
You could say the position runs in his family.
{Walt with his mother Jane Kershenski at his retirement party Sunday}
His 92 year old mother Jane was Darien Town Clerk for 25 years, his wife’s grandfather was a Town Clerk in Wyoming.
“I used to come to the office here on occasion to pay a dog license when Ann Costa was Stafford Town Clerk, she knew my mom,” says Kershenski.
“I would tease her every once and a while and say I was going to take her job.”
At the time, Kershenski worked for Gilbraltar Steel in Lackawanna as head of their Data Center, he took care of their main frame computers. He was employed there for 15 years and before that he worked at Trojan in Batavia in their Data Center for 17 years.
“It was very stressful, a lot of driving, a lot of hours and getting there in the winter was tough, I was looking for a way out.”
One day Kershenski met up with Costa in Aldi’s parking lot and she approached him. “I’m retiring and I know you said you wanted my job,” she told him.
Kershenski says he couldn’t believe his ears.
“She was offering me her job, I thought this was too easy.”
He says he thought about it and thought about it, and after discussing it with his wife and doing some number crunching because it was a big cut in pay, he decided to finally give it a shot.
Kershenski, a Democrat, was appointed by an all Republican Town Board to replace Costa for the rest of her term. The next year after that he had to run for office to keep the position.
“Running for office was kind of stressful.”
Politics is not fun.
“I was very fortunate, I made my mark on everybody in the Town, I had no problem with the election, I was overwhelmingly elected.”
Taking Kershenski’s place on January 1st is former Town Court Clerk Julie Scheuerlein, She will walk across the hall to begin her new job as Town Clerk by first taking on the tax season.
“Four miles of thruway generate a lot of business for this town and you are not always dealing with people in a happy situation, so I am looking forward to dealing with people locally because I love this town,” says Scheuerlein.
Kershenski will be staying on to help out for a few months.
(Terry Young/Emery Park caretaker, Walt, and Town Supervisor Robert Clement}
Kershenski says he plans on staying in Stafford during retirement. He will be staying on as zoning and planning board secretary to do the minutes.
“I wanna be able to do things in my shop and my yard, tend to my garden and help my wife, she retired a year and a half ago as a nurse of 48 years from UMMC and St. Jerome Hospital.”
They will also visit their grandkids and their son a bit more in St.Louis.
Kershenski says he will miss the people and the friends he has made and helping people by pointing them in the right direction when they come into Town Hall.
{Left to right-Michelle Smith/Town of Bergen Clerk, Debra Buck-Leaton/Town of Byron Clerk, Teressa Morasco/Town of Batavia Clerk}
“I’ve had a strong network with all the clerks{13} in Genesee County, they have been very supportive of me, especially since I was the only guy in a predominately female environment.”
“I’ve loved every minute of it, I’ve had a lot of nice girlfriends to pal around with and a lot of fun at the Town Clerk conventions, they treat me well, as one of the girls,” says Kershenski.