Erick Bengel: Everyday People: Warrenton clerk pays attention to detail
Oct. 24—WARRENTON — One of Valerie Carlson's most conspicuous qualities is her attention to detail.
When the Warrenton Municipal Court clerk agreed to a profile, she brought resumes of her professional life and community work, along with newsletters, newspaper clippings, photos albums, certificates, business records and other documentation.
She handles information with accuracy and care.
The most rewarding part of her job, she said, is knowing that she has given Judge Stacy Rodriguez everything she needs to succeed in that day's arraignments — ensuring the docket is prepared and the judge has all the essential facts before her to preside over cases.
The hardest part? The sheer volume of cases that must be tracked. "It's overwhelming," Carlson said.
Are people paying off their fines as ordered, or completing their community service? Are they taking the required classes — such as for theft, anger management, traffic safety or minor-in-possession diversion — to deal with their behavior? If the answer is no — and it often is — Carlson is involved in the next steps. She also fills in for the police secretary, a role she had in the 1980s and '90s while working as a secretary in the planning department.
Carlson's scrupulousness and work ethic have carried her from one gig in the community to the next, often when the stress and stakes are high.
She grew up on a farm outside Warner Robins, Georgia, near Robins Air Force Base, where her father served and specialized in jet engines. When she and her siblings weren't in school, they had chores: cleaning the barn, taking care of horses, pigs and chickens, tending the garden.
"You work, or else your animals don't eat, right? You work, or the vegetables don't get picked," she said.
They would gather crops people had ordered, put the requested amounts — say, 10 pounds of green beans — in bags that her dad would deliver.
Carlson moved to the North Coast as a sophomore — her mother's family had deep roots in Astoria — and graduated from Warrenton High School. As a student, she earned money as a cannery worker, grocer, waitress and, at Camp Rilea Armed Forces Training Center, a secretary. Since then, she's worked in the public and private sectors, including Ticor Title, Columbia Memorial Hospital and Providence Seaside Hospital. For the town of Hammond, she helped set up Clatsop County elections.
"I've never not been busy," she said.
Even during the years she stayed home to raise her son, she managed Carlson Contracting Inc., the Hammond-based company she owns with her husband, Flint. When she went to the gym, she'd take her cellphone, along with paper and a pen, to field business calls between reps.
"I can't believe I did that," she said. "But I did."
On Christmas Eve 2008, amid the Great Recession, their business, located at Tyee Street and Third Avenue, burned to the ground when a vehicle under repair experienced a mechanical failure.
"So not only were we dealing with the slowdown, but then that happened," Carlson recalled, calling it "one of the worst days of our lives."
She and Flint rebuilt, though they chose to keep the staff smaller and the work mostly local.
Carlson has volunteered with local schools, the Warrenton Firefighters Association and the Warrenton Boy Scouts troop.
As committee chairwoman of Warrenton Kids Inc., she led the effort in the mid-2000s to overhaul the youth baseball fields at what is now Quincy V. & Bessie Robinson Community Park, an area that was prone to flooding and often unusable. She also had the dugouts rebuilt.
"That's one of the most noteworthy things that I can say I've left in my community," she said.
Carlson wanted to do more for the park before she left the Warrenton Kids organization. She envisioned indoor batting cages where the tennis courts now sit, and a recreation area for children.
She can see herself tackling those items as part of a team after she retires, she said.
The project would need someone like her to get it done — someone unafraid of facing the mountain of details.
