0316 Alabaster Newsletter-WEB

Around Town
Answer the Call to Serve
Sue Hamlin
Employee Spotlight
Sue Hamlin, Senior Clerk with Alabaster’s Public
Works was having a great morning. “I recently
moved offices and now I have a view,” she excitedly
shared as she pointed out the window to the
snow showers slowly falling. And while Sue was
snug and warm in her office, she knew that the rest
of her department was out in the cold, or heat, or
whatever the weather serving the community of
Alabaster.
“Public Works has a lot of good workers that will
get out of their trucks and go beyond what they
have to do to make the customer happy,” Hamlin
said. She often gets callers who want her to pass
along a “thank you” for a job well done. “I think
our department cares. We care about making appearances
look good. Making the public happy,
the customers happy. We work hard for that,” she
asserted.
Sue Hamlin joined Public Works about a year
ago to relieve some of the administrative duties
from Mark Harris, the department head. “He
was having to do his job as head of Public Works
as well as answer the phones, answer emails. It
became way too much, since it kept him tied to
“Public Works has a lot of
good workers that will get
out of their trucks and go
beyond what they have to
do to make the customer
happy.”
-Sue Hamlin
his desk. I have been able to fill that role and allowed
him to get out more,” she said. Now Hamlin
answers phone calls, follows up with emails, and
handles many of the back office tasks.
“Every day is different,” she declared with a
smile. “I answer all the questions that the public
has in regard to the street and the garbage service.”
Her goal with every interaction is always the same,
to make it right. “I had one resident that was upset
Sue Hamlin enjoys serving the residents of Alabaster.
that there were some trees on the easement that were
blocking sightlines and dropping branches. So one of our
crews went out to the site, trimmed the trees and cleaned
up the debris,” she shared. She added, “I know we will do
everything we can to make it right.”
Hamlin takes her job very seriously because Alabaster is
where she calls home. “I moved to Alabaster over 30 years
ago. My kids grew up here and went to Thompson High
School (THS). They played sports at THS. They earned
scholarships to college. My kids still live here - my two
granddaughters and my soon to be third granddaughter,”
she proudly shared.
After years of living here, she has seen quite a bit of
change for the better. “I have really enjoyed seeing Alabaster
grow to have restaurants and shopping,” she said. But
her biggest excitement is over the new sports facilities. “ I
have also enjoyed watching the fields come out. When my
kids were little we worked hard to make the fields better,”
she recalled. “To have a child in Alabaster would be just
amazing. To see Veterans Park and all those others fields -
it is awesome. I thought it was good then, it is even better
now,” she exclaimed.
She spent many years watching her two sons play sports,
first in the city’s youth leagues, then up through their
high school years. “It was wonderful. It was my life. I was
at practices, I was at games. I sat with other moms. I still
call many of them friends today after all these years,” she
fondly remembered.
When Hamlin is not busy at work she can be found
spending time at the beach or with her grandchildren who
call her Lulu. And she is always ready to answer your concern
with a goal of making it right.
24 cityofalabaster.com