By Sarah Vogelsong
CP Reporter
For 18 years, town councils have come and gone in Port Royal, shifting with the currents of public opinion, but one face has remained steady: that of town clerk Terri Harrison.
“Pretty much anything (the Council) wants to know, I can find it,” said Harrison.
Depending on their location, town clerks wear a variety of hats and oversee a variety of responsibilities. Sometimes those responsibilities diverge widely from the more workaday tasks of public administration: the International Institute of Municipal Clerks, for example, reports that in ancient Greece, the first duty of the city clerk was “to decree a curse upon anyone who should seek to deceive the people.”
Harrison isn’t in the business of cursing any of Port Royal’s few hundred inhabitants, but much of her life is consumed with interacting with them in different ways. Because of the small size of the community, her duties include keeping minutes of Council meetings, typing correspondence, handling payroll and collections, paying the town’s bills, and assisting with business licenses and tax payments.
All told, it adds up to some 15 to 25 hours of work a week, depending on what’s going on. December and April are the busiest times of the year, December because of year-end projects and April because of town decals.
Still, it’s labor she enjoys, particularly the chance to help town residents who come to her door or call her almost every day with questions, and sometimes complaints, about matters such as their bills, decals, or problems with neighbors.
“It’s always been that way,” said Harrison, reflecting on her constant availability to Port Royal’s men and women. “That’s never bothered me. That was a positive for the townspeople and for me.”
The job was one she fell into almost two decades ago. Originally from Northern Virginia, Harrison was first introduced to Port Royal the night she met her husband. She was living in Colonial Beach at the time, and he had brought his boat up the Rappahannock and asked her for a ride home.
Harrison still remembers that drive—it was midnight, and at that time, Port Royal’s streets were still lined with locust trees.
“It was creepy,” she remembered.
That sentiment rapidly changed, however, as the relationship grew and Harrison came to fall in love with the small town on the Rappahannock, eventually moving there herself. More than 20 years later, she’s still happily a resident.
“The town looks out for each other,” she said. “The older ones who have long passed did, and the younger ones today do, too. We all know when each other hurts and when we’re going through happy times.”
In 1997, she “organically” became town clerk when her husband volunteered her to type a letter for then-mayor William Jeter. Looking back to those early days, she recalled that she had to take her old typewriter to the office in the renovated Town Hall, and that right after she began, longtime resident Cleo Coleman gave her two candy dishes for her desk and a card wishing her well in her endeavors. She still has the card and remembers its words fondly.
As time passed, Harrison took on other responsibilities. She stepped up to become town treasurer when the position became vacant. In the early 2000s, she was asked by Town Council to serve on the Planning Commission, a seat she held until recently, and she also has served on the town’s Board of Zoning Appeals.
In Caroline, she spent a number of years at the Chamber of Commerce, and she’s a member of St. Peter’s Episcopalian in Port Royal, where she’s served in a range of capacities over the years, including typing bulletins and acting as an acolyte. She’s been president of the Port Royal Ruritans and for several years has helped out with the car show at Bowling Green’s Harvest Festival.
All of this is in addition to Harrison’s full-time work. Currently, she is a finance clerk for special education and the Medicaid coordinator with Caroline County Public Schools.
Her background is largely in finance: in Caroline, she spent years at Union First Market Bank as the administrative assistant to the commercial loan officer.
“That was like my family,” Harrison said. And like family, her co-workers saw her through some difficult times, including the loss of her parents and her husband, and it was a blow when the recession came, dramatically decreasing the volume of loans issued and leading to the elimination of her position.
Still, Harrison is nothing if not resilient: “I survived,” she said simply.
“I keep thinking, things (may) be difficult, but I can get through them and learn something from them,” she said.
That positive attitude carries over into all of her interactions. Harrison’s pleasure in the small things of daily life are evident when she talks about her two dogs and her garden, where she grows sunflowers and tomatoes. A lover of plants, she says she keeps them “everywhere,” whether at home or in her office.
But perhaps it’s not surprising that she would feel an affinity with creatures who put down roots. After all, that’s exactly what Harrison has done in Port Royal, and whatever the future has in store for the town, it seems likely that Harrison will be there, taking notes and helping ensure that the new chapter unfolds smoothly.