GEORGE — There’s a new clerk-treasurer in George, and she has a new assistant.

Former Deputy Clerk-Treasurer Amy Grace, who has holding down the fort since the last clerk-treasurer left in March, was officially appointed to the position at Tuesday night’s city council meeting. SA temporary worker the city contracted to help Grace, Tonya Nelson, was appointed the new deputy clerk-treasurer at the same meeting. The city will pay more than $8,000 to the agency Nelson currently works for to allow her to work for the city immediately.

“It's a challenging job,” Grace told the Herald. “I have to say that I think this is the most challenging job I have ever gone after.”

Grace has only been working for the city since last November when she was hired as deputy clerk-treasurer. That position was a lot simpler, she said: acting as the clerk-treasurer’s right-hand person and handling utility billing, animal licenses and the like. She really enjoyed that work, she said, but after two clerk-treasurers left in a month, she was left on her own with only three months’ experience.

Then, while the city was looking for another clerk-treasurer, Grace had to go on medical leave.

“So we got (Tonya Nelson) in here to help,” she said. “I had to train her to do the utility billing and answer phones and stuff like that. But I just dove in headfirst. I wasn't being the clerk-treasurer. I was just helping the engineers with what's going on with the water, and answering questions, helping the mayor with this and that.”

“She's been doing an excellent job,” Nelson told the council. “She's been doing a lot of training. Even when she was on sick time, she watched videos and took classes. She was able to do online training. So she's getting very familiar with all of the requirements that the clerk-treasurer has to meet.”

“I was just sitting there, I might as well,” said Grace.

“The whole six weeks I was gone on medical leave, just texting back and forth with the temp deputy clerk and FaceTiming with her and walking her through the system,” she told the Herald.

When she returned, Mayor Gerene Nelson asked her to make it official.“

She asked me if I would ever consider it and I'm like, I’m really happy as deputy clerk,” Grace said. “The more I thought about it, (the more it was) like, ‘Well, I've already been doing it for this long. I might as well keep going.’”

This is Grace’s first foray into municipal management, she said. She previously managed a bar and grill in Ephrata, where she learned how to handle payroll and some bookkeeping. When that business closed, she went to work managing the Moose Lodge in Quincy, where she learned to handle more complex matters like taxes and working with accounting software.

“My personal experience working with Amy has been super positive,” Council Member Julie Schooler said at the Tuesday meeting. “Every time I go in there, she's working super hard. I think that she's taking steps to grow, and I have really enjoyed working with her. Every time I asked her for information she's always gotten back to me super quickly.”

“It's actually kind of scary, honestly,” Grace said. “The responsibility and liability that I have on my shoulders I take very seriously, and I'm going to try my best to do everything correctly.”

Joel Martin can be reached via email at jmartin@columbiabasinherald.com.