VanHooser, Bellm now part of team at Ash Grove City Hall

Projected residential growth leads to hiring of new assistant utility billing clerks for municipality
If you’ve been by Ash Grove City Hall lately, you’ve probably noticed some new faces. Joyce Bellm and Kathryn VanHooser, both assistant utility billing clerks, are the newest members of the city staff. They were hired around the first week of May.
In their roles, both women perform many different duties. And while Ash Grove may look like a quiet little town, VanHooser said that the work at City Hall can sometimes get very intense.
“There’s a lot of diversity involved,” she said. “Collecting water payments, taking building permit information, and expediting those we have. There’s a lot of data entry. There are just a few of us here, so we do kind of do everything … (like) water the plants, take the garbage out, go to the post office, take payments, (and) answer customers’ questions.”
Bellm said that much of their work centers around utility payments.

Background
Each woman has a different background that she brings into the job. For example, VanHooser has an extensive history in the military and law enforcement.
“I’m a therapist, a trauma therapist,” she said. “I was a deputy sheriff for Greene County, a bailiff, for 20 years, (and) I was in the military for 26 years as a corpsman. At the latter part of my career, I went back and got my counseling degree, so I did trauma therapy after the deployments, and I worked with Judge Holden in Mental Health Court, drug court, DWI court, all of those.”
After the intensity of her last career, VanHoosen said, she was looking for something that would keep her close to home, and with a lot less stress.
“I just kind of wanted to be immersed in the community,” she said, “and I won’t say (the job is) simple, (but) it’s doable.
“And I like it. At the end of the day, I go home, and I’m relaxed, and you know, doing counseling all those years after I retired from the other two jobs, it kind of weighed on you sometimes. The last job I had, I worked at a residential care facility. I worked at Willard, Stratford, and Woodland Manor, counseling elderly people because I kind of had a passion for them.”
Bellm, on the other hand, ran her own business as an insurance agent.
“I was an insurance agent and owned an agency in Willard, and I did that from about 1990 to 2013,” she said.
The skills she learned in the insurance industry, Bellm added, come in handy at Ash Grove City Hall.
“Owning my own business and running an office taught me my people skills, office organization, (and) how to deal with tense situations where maybe somebody’s unhappy, and it’s your job to try to shed some sunlight on their day.”
Bellm said she also likes being able to make a difference in the community.
“I love Ash Grove, and the area that it is,” she said. “The people are so special here, and just being able to reach out and make a difference in helping them. Plus, giving some relief to Jennifer (Wilkinson, assistant city clerk/ utility billing clerk). I mean the job is very multifaceted, and it’s very fast-paced, and sometimes the job for one person was just overwhelming, and so I’m tickled to be able to relieve some of that stress and to be able to help out.”

Reason for hires
Melissa Mau, city clerk, said the reason for hiring VanHooser and Bellm was to prepare for a projected increase in the size of Ash Grove.
“(The city is) expanding,” she said. “We have a new subdivision coming in with 115 new houses within the next year. That’s just the beginning of what we see happening in the future.”
Mau added that VanHoosen and Bellm have proven to be very good hires.
“I’m very pleased with our choices,” she said, “and the girls, they’re absorbing a lot. We’re throwing a lot at them, because every day here … you can go in multiple directions within minutes. (But) they’re doing very well.”