Town welcomes new police clerk

A new face with a familiar last name smiles from the police clerk's window at Moorcroft's town hall. Samantha Blakeman was hired last week to take over the position held by Jesse Connally for the last 20 years and is looking forward to the challenge.

The former Gillette resident and her husband moved to Moorcroft in 2021, when plans to travel on to Arizona fell through. The family has also grown to include their daughter, who is now seven.

When the part time clerk position became available, Blakeman quickly applied.

"I needed something stable and I've always loved working in an office environment," she says. "The atmosphere here really drew me in, it's very calm and quiet in here and everyone is just super friendly and willing to help out no matter what. I love coming in here."

When the new clerk was interviewed a couple of weeks ago, Police Chief Bill Bryant, Cheryl Schneider and Jesse Connally were the three with whom she conversed and, while Bryant intimidated her a bit during the meeting, according Blakeman, "On my second day here, he actually pulled me over there and trained me a little bit on the computer. Once you kind of break the ice, he's great to be around – very funny, outgoing and talkative. You can joke around with him and it's nice."

She spoke highly of her new boss, Connally, as well, "She's great, I love her. She is very fun to be around and I couldn't ask for anyone better to be my supervisor. She's been very kind with helping me."

The new clerk was working alone for a time last week. "[Connally] left me notes everywhere about what to do and left me her phone number, I love that. She's definitely very involved with me. It's been very nice," she says.

The police clerk is cross training for both the police clerical work and the town hall; the latter is proving more complex than the former.

"When I was learning over on the police side, Bill showed me maybe two things and immediately, I picked it right up, but going over to the town hall side, there's a lot more to it than I had thought. The water bills, the memberships for the gym, the council, the dump... all of that. I think that's where I'm going to struggle for a little bit," she says.

When asked about future plans, Blakeman spoke candidly, "My husband and I do want to eventually move to Arizona...but I told my husband the other day, I'm probably going to be buried under this building because I couldn't ask for a better job, as soon as I walked in the doors on my first day, I knew right away that I was going to spend a very long time here. This is my calling."

The police clerk sees herself growing with the position and is looking forward to, "Being a part of Moorcroft. Before, I was just living in the town, now I'm actually involved and it feels pretty good".