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Deputy Town Clerk is retiring after 33 years: Sharon Jacobs and husband Henry are Florida bound

A familiar face and presence at Town Hall will be absent after Nov. 20, as Deputy Town Clerk Sharon Jacobs is retiring after 33 years and four months.

Ms. Jacobs said Monday that the time was right to retire. She and her husband Henry’s daughter, Mariah, is being married in March in Melbourne, Fla., and the Jacobs plan to settle in the area.

For the daughter of Town Clerk Dorothy Ogar — who has held the office since 1977 — Town Hall has been a large part of her life since childhood. Lynn Kay Winters, Ms. Jacob’s cousin, has recalled that when they were kids, “Sharon and I played on the steps of the Town Hall,” where the Shelter Island Police Department is now headquartered.

During the height of the pandemic, the work load at the clerk’s office more than doubled, with many new residents arriving and needing the office’s services. Ms. Jacobs, along with the rest of the staff, kept the office open and functioning.

Beyond helping newcomers, 2020 was also the year that resident beach parking permits expired and had to be replaced. Ms. Jacobs recalled a single day when she tracked the number of requests for permit renewals at 107. Each had to be checked, and once a permit was approved, there was work involved in getting the new ones sent to the applicants.

Still, with all the work, it has “smoothed out,” Ms. Jacobs said.

The Jacobs are not completely “pulling up stakes from Shelter Island,” she said. Her parents are here, along with friends, so they won’t be strangers.

As for plans after settling in Florida, ”I’m going to enjoy my life,” Ms. Jacobs said.