Tucked away at a corner desk in a modest back office in Southold Town Hall, one of the town’s most cherished employees toils in obscurity on projects that literally never end: records management, organization and digitization of documents stretching back centuries, an expertise in evolving software technologies and the ability to respond promptly to an endless stream of records requests.
For more than two decades now, with zero fanfare, Southold Town records management assistant Stacey Norklun has been maintaining, organizing and digitizing all of the town’s records.
Prior to Ms. Norklun’s appointment, the town’s antiquated paper filing system was slow and labor intensive, longtime deputy town clerk Lynda Rudder told The Suffolk Times last year.
Back then, she said, “I spent a lot of time in the basement, pulling folders. We do have a list of where things are stored down there, but finding them is a whole different thing. Until Stacey got here.
“Now you can go over there and ask her for anything and within an hour she’ll bring back the original,” Ms. Rudder said, adding, “She comes in early. She leaves late and she’s sometimes here on weekends.”
In a series of recent interviews, current and former Southold Town employees said it’s high time for this humble, somewhat shy, civil servant to get some recognition for her vast and lasting contributions to Southold.
“Oh, my God, this makes my heart sing, I’m so happy,” former town attorney’s office assistant Melissa Mirabelli said when she learned of Ms. Norklun’s nomination. “She’s beyond important. And what she has accomplished — getting everything digitalized for the Town of Southold, as well as keeping up with the regular day-to-day things and requests that she gets for files and things — is amazing.”
Planning department director Heather Lanza agreed.
“Record-keeping sounds like it’s not much, but it’s so important, especially in government, and especially when the public expects to be able to know what’s going on,” Ms. Lanza said. “She just plays such a critical role in making sure that that’s up and running and organized … she’s one of those public servants that is just always reliable, always there, takes her job seriously and does a great job.”
Southold Town Clerk Denis Noncarrow considers Ms. Norklun a genius.
“It’s mind-boggling to spend a day with her,” he said. “We get requests for documentation all the time, and we might be storing something that nobody’s ever going to ask for — but then one day, years later, it happens that it’s an important necessity — and she has it. I’ll email her, ‘Geez, I’m looking for this [obscure] document that somebody’s called about,’ and I get it right away. The email comes back, ‘Here. I found it.’ It absolutely blows my mind.”
State-mandated record retention laws require that some documents remain in paper form for years, while others can be digitized. Still others, like court records, police files and planning and zoning records, must be retained indefinitely.
“It’s very complex,” Mr. Noncarrow said. “You want to keep things forever, but you don’t have room, so you’ve got to have a good management process in place to get rid of certain [records] over time. She is somebody you can always trust. You never have to check back, and it’s always handled professionally … And then there are the new things she takes on, like the [Freedom of Information Law] system — we needed to upgrade the process to ensure there are electronic backups.”
Meanwhile, he said, “We are taking on all the Town Board meeting [videos] and all the records from any of the committees, as well as all the minutes, and digitizing them.”
The town clerk is proud that Ms. Norklun has developed a regional reputation as an authority on a spectrum of records management issues.
“Other towns — when we get together for the [New York State] Town Clerk’s Association conferences — they know all about her,” he said. “They call her with questions about how she does things, how we use Laserfiche, our processes. She is very well known in other towns.”
Laserfiche is a digital software platform for records management and business automation.
Most of all, though, Mr. Noncarrow said, “she is such a humble, quiet person. And a lot of times it goes unnoticed — and it shouldn’t be unnoticed.”
Ms. Norklun’s superior skills are responsible for bringing the history of Southold alive by digitizing and publishing on the town’s website a treasure trove of historical documents stretching from the town’s founding in 1640 through World War II and beyond.
Among the fascinating records are copies of the original document establishing Southold Town and a mid-17th century deed book. There’s an “earmark” book from the early 1800s, in which local farmers record the distinctive ‘marks’ they cut into the ears of livestock to identify them as their property. There is a book of slave manumissions and records of individual owners freeing specific enslaved people that stretches from 1795 to 1837.
There are Civil War-era letters and an 1865 war enlistment book, a 35-page World War I list of local men enlisted in a state militia. The most extensive records digitized are those concerning World War II, including records from the Shelter Island War Council, aluminum scrap collection memos and air raid alert instructions — with special instructions for doctors making emergency calls at night.
Former town clerk Elizabeth “Betty” Neville, who hired Ms. Norklun, said she is an asset to the town. “I am absolutely delighted and highly supportive of Stacey’s nomination for this prestigious award,” Ms. Neville said. “Stacey is an exemplary individual and employee, highly skilled in her daily work tasks and service to the people of the Town of Southold.”
Ms. Norklun works closely with John Sepenoski from the town’s IT dept.
“She’s probably one of the best town employees we have,” he said. “She approaches her job from a point of view of ‘What can I do to help?’ And that’s refreshing in local government, [where] the norm is people who will spend their time explaining why they’re too busy to help you.
“She’s a very hard worker, and she cares about what she’s doing,” Mr. Sepenoski concluded. “She really should have a higher title than she has under civil service. A lot of us here could say that, but she really should have a higher title. She really should have a higher salary.”
The Suffolk Times may not be able to raise Ms. Norklun’s pay, but we are pleased indeed to acknowledge her skill, dedication and diligence in maintaining the town’s critical documentation by naming her our Public Servant of the Year for 2024.
Previous Winners
2023: Candace Hall
2022: Carolyn Peabody
2021: Charles Sanders
2019: Kevin Webster 2018: Rodney Shelby
2017: William Price
2016: Jim Grathwohl
2015: Jack Martilotta
2014: Ted Webb
2013: Heather Lanza
2012: Ed Romaine
2011: Greenport and Southold Highway Department Crews
2010: Leslie Weisman
2009: Betty Neville
2008: Thomas Crowley
2007: Philip Beltz
2006: Jesse Wilson
2005: Martin Flatley
2004: Mattituck-Cutchogue School Board
2003: Ben Orlowski Jr.
2002: Jack Sherwood
2001: Dave Abatelli
2000: Melissa Spiro
1999: Valerie Scopaz
1998: Jamie Mills
1997: Karen McLaughlin
1996: Lisa Israel
1995: John Costello
1994: Ray Jacobs
1993: Judy Terry
1992: William Pell
1991: Beth Wilson
1990: Antonia Booth
1989: Frank Murphy
1988: Venetia McKeighan
1987: Paul Stoutenburgh