A Familiar Face in Groton Marks 30 Years

Assistant Town Clerk Sally Whitney has spoken to tens of thousands of people in Groton over the years, if she hasn’t actually met them.

She started working for the town 30 years ago today, starting as a single mother of two and a secretary in the Water Pollution Control office. Now she’s one of the senior people in the union.

“It is an accomplishment,” she said of the anniversary. “It’s a milestone.

Whitney was born in Groton, graduated from St. Bernard’s School and attended a training program at the Occupational Industrial Center in New London. She worked for one year at the Bureau of Business Practices in Waterford, which no longer exists, before beginning her work with Groton.

She was raising her daughter, Jennifer, 6, and son, Allyn, 8.

“I was a single parent at that time,” said Whitney, 57. “I had not had college, I had not formally held a full-time job when I got divorced in 1980. So I went to school and I held one full-time job prior to working for the town. I wanted to have a job that provided benefits and a steady income.”

She found she enjoyed it. She wanted to stay and she did.

She answered phones, balanced accounts and monitored the radio for water pollution control. Then she moved to the assessor’s office and handled paperwork for motor vehicles, the grand list and veterans’ exemptions. Then she went to the town clerk’s office.

She recalled a moment with Groton Finance Director Sal Pandolfo that she’ll always remember.

“He said, ‘Isn’t there something I can do to make you stay? I’m going to miss your laughter and seeing your smile,’” she recalled. "That's something that's always meant a lot to me."

She told him she was just moving down the hall.

Whitney was promoted to assistant town clerk in 2003, and today maintains the database of land records for Groton and serves as clerk for Representative Town Meeting. She’s also a union steward for Groton Municipal Employees UECILU.

She said she and her husband of 28 years, Ralph Whitney, will mark the occasion.  Whitney, a senior engineer at Electric Boat, will have worked for his employer 42 years in June.

 “I’m sure my husband and I are going to go out for a drink (tonight),” she said.