On September 1 she closes the minute books for a life of retirement.

Over the course of her career, she has recorded 10,623 pages of council minutes and expects on her final council meeting August 16 she will add 100 more pages to the official city record.

“Mine are closest to verbatim without being verbatim,” she said today. “I think it's important to know how they arrived at a decision. I've never been a fan of action minutes.”

Her decision to retire is based on family. “After 31 ½ years, it is time to slow down and enjoy my growing family. I am a first-time granny to Maren Juliette and look forward to spending time with her. I also plan to visit my youngest son in Florida more often and help him and his fiancee with wedding plans for next June.”

The decision to enter retirement was a difficult one, not knowing whether she would have enough to do to keep her busy being one and “leaving everybody up here” at city hall being the other.

Over the course of her career she has worked with five city managers, two interim city managers and five mayors. There have been too many city council members to count. “I've been fortunate over the years to make many wonderful friendships with those I have worked for and with and still keep in touch with many of them, including my first two city managers who I hear from several times a year even though they moved from Roanoke Rapids many years ago.”

Getting to the point where she is today — a clerk certified on both state and international levels — began when she was hired straight of college after earning an associates degree from HCC, to work in the office of longtime Roanoke Rapids attorney W. Lunsford Crew, who needed someone to work until a paralegal was available. “The experience and what I learned from him and the ladies in his office would set the tone for the remainder of my work career.”

The work ethic instilled in her when she was 20 would stick and she learned “so much about working together to get things accomplished, especially under deadlines.”

Three months after leaving Crew's office, she was hired March 6, 1985, as receptionist for the city. A few months later she was promoted to secretary of the city manager and served in the deputy clerk position under George Morgan, who was city clerk, finance director and assistant city manager. When he retired she became city clerk and has served there ever since.

She says the most important minutes she has recorded dealt with the public hearings over the Roanoke Rapids Theatre financing agreements. “They were the most important and intimidating because they had to be in a special format for the Local Government Commission.”

Through all of the issues she has recorded for the record, she says she did so objectively and ended up recording them in her own style, a combination of shorthand and longhand.

The clerk's job is not just that of keeping minutes. She coordinates board applications, keeping up when vacancies arise. She gets the agendas out, is responsible for the City Page and the front page of the city's website.

She has enjoyed seeing the changes in the city and keeping a record of its history. “It's all the people I have met, clerks throughout the state.”

Vincent says the secret to being an effective clerk is “keeping a positive attitude and knowing how to manage your time. It has been my pleasure to serve the citizens of this community through the actions taken by various government bodies I have served and also by serving as a liaison between the elected officials and the citizens.”

When asked about Vincent, Mayor Emery Doughtie said, “Good, good, good is all you can say about Lisa. She's going to be difficult to replace. She's been a very efficient and dedicated employee. She just seemed to be one step ahead of things I need to know as the mayor. I think she's done a very professional job.”

City Manager Joseph Scherer said, “Lisa Vincent has consistently demonstrated a high degree of professional excellence as city clerk. Her knowledge of her professional specialty, total dedication to work and willingness to assist in any capacity has made her a valuable asset to the city of Roanoke Rapids.”

The city manager said, “Lisa demonstrates daily outstanding professional ability, in-depth technical knowledge and uncommon perceptiveness to the needs of city council, the mayor, myself and the city administration staff. Her pending retirement will leave an outstanding legacy that future city clerks will have a difficult time living up to.”