WELD — In 1978,  residents elected Carol Cochran tax collector and town clerk for one year.

She had grown up in nearby Dixfield and married Weld native Henry Cochran. The young stay-at-home mom ran the town office out of her living room.

“You had no set hours; people could come any time of the day or weekend,” Cochran said. “You might be in the middle of dinner.”

Still, the next year she took out nomination papers for both positions. She got elected again.

And again.

She’s run every year since and never faced a challenger, to her memory.

“I enjoy the work, obviously,” Cochran, 58, said.

When town business outgrew the living room, she moved onto her porch. In 1999, Weld built a combined town office and post office on Mill Street, which is now Cochran’s home base. Being town clerk and tax collector takes 35 hours a week. The only other person in the office is the town treasurer, part-timer Kay Jackson.

Weld has 402 residents but swells to 3,000 with visitors in the summer.

“We have six new little ones in town, new babies this year,” Cochran said. “It’s a small town, you know everybody.”

That’s what she likes about it. She also loves the mountain views, and that she can see the old farmhouse where her father grew up outside her window at home.

Cochran is part of Weld Rec, secretary of the Weld Historical Society, on the board of directors for the Webb Lake Association and secretary of the new Bicentennial Committee, planning for a big 2016 to-do.

Weld’s town meeting is held on a Saturday in March; elections are held the Friday night before. Results are announced at the meeting.

“Everybody anxiously awaits who’s going to be elected into office,” Cochran said.

Next month, she’ll take out nomination papers again for both seats. “If I really want to get (selectmen) going, I say,  ‘I’m not going to do it this year,'” she said.

“I never mean it.”

Know someone who knows everyone? We’re always looking for ideas. Contact staff writer Kathryn Skelton at kskelton@sunjournal.com or 689-2844

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