FARMINGTON — Karen Robinson is looking forward to another chapter in her life.

The Wilton woman has been the Franklin County treasurer for 12 years and also served as deputy treasurer for 14 months prior to that.

Wednesday is her last day. Though she’s retiring from this job, she has plans for the future.

Robinson started her job at the county while she and husband, Wes, owned Jack’s Logging. She worked there part-time as a bookkeeper and saw an ad in the paper for the deputy treasurer position.

“I decided it was a good fit,” Robinson said. She then ran for election as county treasurer.

She was born in Connecticut and grew up there before moving to Maine in 1973 to attend the University of Maine where she earned a degree in elementary education.

Her first and only teaching position was at the Ingalls School in Farmington teaching 30 sixth-grade students.

She learned her early accounting techniques from her husband, who has a degree in business and worked in the retail logging business.

When she started at the county level, her focus was getting Franklin County’s financial books in order.

“I liked getting the county in a good financial position and really learning how the whole county works together,” Robinson said. “For many years I did the financial statements by hand.”

The county’s software program was just a check book program back then, she said.

There have been a lot of changes over the years including more grants being available for the local Emergency Management Agency since the terrorist attacks in 2001.

County employees are always looking for more grants to help offset costs so that they don’t have to go to the taxpayers as much, she said.

“The county is looking more for a plan for the future,” she said.

Robinson said she was kind of sorry the referendum to upgrade county buildings didn’t pass because the issues are still there. The county is trying to be proactive instead of reactive and Band-aiding problems as they come up.

She has worked with the same board of commissioners throughout her elected terms. They’ve worked well together, she said.

“I really liked being the working treasurer,” Robinson said.

Most county’s have a full-time deputy treasurer, she said, while Franklin County has a half-time deputy treasurer/half-time deputy clerk. The treasurer’s position is also part-time.

“I just think we run the office on a lot fewer people,” she said.

She’ll miss the people she has met and worked with, and those at conferences she learned from, Robinson said.

Her next step is kind of ironic. She is going back to working with children.

“I’m definitely going to be in Florida in the winters,” she said. “I’ll probably be substituting in schools. Just because you retired from one job doesn’t mean you retire.”

Last year she substituted as a teacher’s aide in Florida. The county school system, where her Bradenton winter residence is, has about 50,000 students with 20 elementary schools.

She worked in the schools last winter and also volunteered at the John and Mabel Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota.

“It’s really a neat place,” she said. John Ringling was a member of the Ringling Bros. Circus family and the couple were art collectors. Their estate was left to the state. Robinson promotes membership.

“It’s kind of a fun volunteer position, something I wouldn’t have the opportunity to do here,” she said.

During the summers, she has no plans to work. Instead she plans to spend more time with family, especially her two granddaughters.

“I plan to enjoy myself,” Robinson said.

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