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Crofoot's civil service takes new tack Photo by Jim Craven City Recorder Doris Crofoot strolls past an antique advertising mural in downtown Jacksonville Tuesday. After 26 1/2 years as a city employee, Crofoot will take a seat on the City Council next month. Longtime city employee will serve from the other side of the council table Retirement party A retirement party is set Tuesday for Doris Crofoot, city recorder and treasurer since 1972. The party will be from 3 to 7 p.m. in the U.S. Hotel Ballroom in Jacksonville. Mayor Jim Lewis will make a presentation to Crofoot at 6 p.m. Although Crofoot is stepping down as city recorder and treasurer, she has been elected to the city council. She begins serving on the council Jan. 1. By PAUL FATTIG JACKSONVILLE -- Doris Crofoot wanted to get one thing straight at the outset. "I really don't like doing this," she said after reluctantly submitting to an interview. "I've got other things I'd rather be doing. "I'm not shy but I have never sought public recognition," she added later. "I would just rather go along my way and do the things I should be doing." Things like looking after the town where she has served as city recorder and treasurer for 26 years. Crofoot, 84, will change roles on Jan. 1. She is retiring from her staff position to begin a new career as a member of the City Council. She won the most votes among the four candidates vying for the three open council seats. "It's kind of a motherly feeling that I have now," she said as she walked about town Tuesday. "I'm going to be responsible for all this now. But it will be a fun place to be." Yet she balked when longtime friends first asked her to run for the council. "I said, `Absolutely not. Do you think I'm crazy?' " she recalled. "They all said, `Yeah."' Crofoot, who had already planned to retire and who had been working half-time since July 1, agreed to think it over for a few days. "Then I talked to my kids and they said, `Go for it, Mom!', " she said. Jacksonville Mayor Jim Lewis is glad she went for it. "She's going to be invaluable on the council," he said. "She knows more (about Jacksonville) than the rest of us put together.'' Outgoing council member Jack Pfeifer, who was on the hiring committee when the city hired her in 1972, agreed. "She's been a wonderful person in that office," Pfeifer said. "She kept the city going singlehandedly for several years. She has extensive knowledge of the city." Born Jan. 8, 1914 in Chicago, she moved west with her parents and grandmother when she was 5 years old. "They started out Sept. 11 of 1919," she said. "Back then, most rivers had to be forded. I remember tiny bits of it. They had a brand new Model T but it kept breaking down." It took two months but the family finally arrived in the San Francisco area. She would graduate from high school in Oakland, and enrolled in the University of California at Berkeley. Financial hardship forced her to drop out of college during the depths of the Great Depression. But she found work, often as a secretary or clerk. She learned bookkeeping on the job. She eventually married and had three daughters. They were young when she and her husband, Harry, moved to the Rogue Valley in 1951. The Crofoots moved to Jacksonville on Aug. 1, 1971 from a spacious home nestled in the westside hills of Medford. "I've always loved Jacksonville," she said. "But my husband, when I told him I wanted to move here, kept saying, `Why do you want to move to that filthy little town?' "That was before they had taken care of the sewage situation," she added. "You couldn't borrow money on anything so we had to rent at first. He kept telling me that the whole place was a mess." But she saw nothing but potential for the historic town. Indeed, her husband, who passed away a decade ago after more than half a century of marriage, came around to her way of thinking. "He came to love it as much as I do," she said. "He said moving here was the best thing we ever did." Like most who run for office, Crofoot wants to have an impact on the future. "There are some things I would like to see done differently," she said. "I'm not really criticizing what has been done. But I'm concerned that growth is too rapid. "I'm afraid we could lose the integrity of the historic nature of this town," she added. "If they ever do that, it'll just be a bedroom community for Medford." Meanwhile, Crofoot hasn't slowed down much. When the flu bug city struck City Hall recently, Crofoot stepped in to help staff the phones. "I remember in high school we used to talk about whether we would live to the year 2000," she said. "Most of us agreed that we wouldn't." After all, few folks were living into their 80s back then, she noted. "I'll be 85 in January," she said, then added, "But you are only as old as you feel." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA