There’s a new face at the Woolwich town office — Suzette Cloutier. 

Cloutier is the town’s new tax collector. She’s also deputy town clerk, assessing assistant and E911 officer. As you’d expect, each of those titles comes with a different set of duties and responsibilities.

Along with updating the tax maps, Cloutier fields question on the telephone and waits on customers at the window collecting real estate and personal property taxes. The tax collector also prepares and records tax liens, and reconciles tax collections to the general ledger on a monthly basis.

As deputy town clerk, Cloutier will register vehicles, boats and ATVs, sell hunting and fishing licenses, and make copies of vital records. She’s applied to become a notary public.

On Friday morning, Cloutier told the Wiscasset Newspaper she recently completed her first Maine Municipal Association class, a comprehensive session covering the basics of excise tax collecting. Before the summer ends, she’ll attend an MMA training session on municipal law for tax collectors and treasurers. She recently joined the Maine Tax Collector’s Association.

Cloutier’s hours at the town office are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday; 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday; and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday. Thursday is her assessing day when she works with Juanita Wilson-Hennessey, the town's contracted assessor.

Serving in municipal government is a new experience for Cloutier, much different from her first career choice.

After graduating from Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, she attended Andover College in Portland where she earned an associate's degree in criminal justice/law enforcement administration. Her first job in law enforcement was as a radio dispatcher for the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Department. After six years there, she left in 2006 to become a communication officer for Cumberland County. Along the way she trained in paramedics and became a part-time emergency medical technician (EMT) for North East Mobile Health.

Cloutier said it was pretty challenging being a 911 dispatcher and fielding emergencies every day. Something interesting she told the newspaper is statistically people only make one 911 call in their lifetime.

“You deal with people’s worst day every day,” she added.

In May 2014, Cloutier took a position in the collections division of the state of Maine’s Child Support Enforcement. She worked in the Lewiston area handling hundreds of cases, but after two years decided to make a career move. When she saw the Woolwich vacancy advertised, she applied.

She said she couldn’t be happier working in Woolwich and looks forward to coming to work every day learning new tasks and meeting new people. It shows: She greets every customer at the window with a friendly hello and bright smile.