UPDATED: Colony appoints interim clerks

Published 9:49 am Friday, April 30, 2021

Editor’s Note: Story has been corrected to note that if the town has to pay the interim clerks, they will be paid $10 total.

COLONY – The Colony town council unanimously appointed Gwendolyn Purifoy and Margaret Dimbo to fill in as town clerks until a new clerk can be hired.

At a called meeting Thursday evening, Mayor Curtis Johnson said Purifoy and Dimbo volunteered to help out the town, without pay, as it will likely take the town a while to hire a new clerk after Pat Ponder was terminated by a vote of the council last week. After being asked if she would be staying on to help train a new clerk, Ponder turned in her town hall keys and cell phone and left the building.

Johnson noted that Purifoy has experience in the position. “In the past, she’s been clerk for over 20 years,” he said.

Purifoy said she and Dimbo would work together to cover the hours the town hall is scheduled to be open, from 8 a.m. to noon, four days a week. They won’t be able to write checks, but can handle other non-fiduciary responsibilities.

The council agreed, too, that if state law does not allow the women to work without pay, they would be paid $10 for their time as interim clerks.

At Thursday’s meeting the council also appointed Johnson to serve as the town’s voting delegate at the Alabama League of Municipalities annual convention in May.