KINGFIELD – The town books will be closed this last day of the year, but this will be the last time Sandra (Jean) Orbeton does it.

She is retiring today after 37 years working for the town.

“When someone has done the work well over 30 years, they do it by rote. They know where everything is and they know everyone in town so it’s hard to replace that institutional memory,” Administrative Assistant Greg Davis said Friday.

Orbeton won’t leave her successors without her wisdom if they need it. She’s not planning to change her phone number, she said Friday, and she will complete her portions of the town report.

She said the town of about 1,100 residents has seen its share of changes.

Kingfield was the first town in Maine to install a septic tank system that prevented dumping sewage in the Carrabassett River. It’s since become a class A river, she said.

The town has computerized its bookkeeping, gained a new fire station, added the E911 system and hired an administrative assistant.

“It’s been an interesting cruise, so to speak,” she said of the work of the town. “I did everything but didn’t think about it. … just got up and did it.”

Starting as an excise tax clerk and bookkeeper in 1970, she said, the job just kept changing over the years. She began working for the town out of her home but then the federal Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 got her into the town office full time.

CETA paid her wages for three years while expecting the town to carry on and keep her after that, she said.

Her organizational abilities helped her with the responsibility of distributing food stamps, a job that was like “cash in the hand” because so many were sent and had to be accounted for, she said.

Her hands also tallied the town’s books, she said. All the bookkeeping and taxes were figured by hand.

She had a book to go by but would take each property’s value and look it up under the tax rate and prepare the bill. It was a long process, she said.

In 1976, she became town clerk and tax collector and in 1983 became treasurer after her predecessor became ill.

“I was the only one handling money,” she said, “and I appreciate the confidence that the townspeople had in me.”

While it’s legal for one person to handle all the town’s money, it’s not recommended, so there were attempts to separate the positions but the older people in town would vote her back in, she said. She went on to also become the registrar of voters. “I was the jack of all trades and master of none,” she said chuckling.

Raised in Rangeley, she baby-sat and later waitressed so she basically has worked since she was 10, she said. Now, at almost 69, she would like to enjoy some time without reporting to work at 8 a.m.

She will also act as treasurer at the United Methodist Church, where she is chairman of the board of trustees.