Jessica Alexander (Jericho Town Clerk)
Jessica Alexander: The Friendly Face at Town Hall
In a sense, long-time Town Clerk Jessica Alexander returned to her youth. The Jericho native attended the Saxon Hill School for the equivalent of Pre-K and Kindergarten and the room where she now serves as Town Clerk was the first location for the teachers and youngsters who were part of that program. In 2001, Alexander returned to that room when she was elected Town Clerk, a position she has held for over two decades.
Alexander has deep roots in Jericho. After the Saxon Hill School, she attended first and second grade at Jericho Elementary School and third and fourth grade at what was known as the Center School. The Center School had some facilities in the Jericho Community Center, and others in the building next door. There was no kitchen, so meals were cooked at the elementary school and transported to Jericho Center.
When she attended middle school, the dividing line between Browns River and Camel’s Hump Middle Schools went through Jericho Center so Alexander attended Camel’s Hump, followed by Mount Mansfield Union High School. She graduated from UVM with a degree in physical therapy and still works in that field on weekends.
After graduation, Alexander worked as a physical therapist in Massachusetts and then did some traveling PT. She spent four years in South Carolina before moving back to Vermont and working at what is now UVM Medical Center. “I was looking for a change,” Alexander said. “Someone asked my mother to run for Town Clerk. She wasn’t interested, but she suggested that I look into it.”
Alexander already had some familiarity with the job. Back in seventh grade, she did a report about the history of the house where she grew up which – coincidentally – had been built by Jericho’s first Town Clerk, Louis Chapin. She shadowed the assistant clerk, Debbie Fitzgerald, and decided to give the job a try, making ten campaign lawn signs which she placed strategically around town.
That 2001 race was the only time Alexander has faced another candidate; she has run unopposed ever since. Although some municipalities elect town clerks every three years, for Jericho it’s a single-year term. Some towns have also moved to make town clerk an appointed position, but Alexander hopes Jericho won’t go that route. “I like being elected because I feel like I’m working directly for the people,” she said.
Alexander said she really enjoys working in the office and continuing to learn about her hometown. “I’m connecting with history,” she said, “and it gives me a sense of place.” In working at Town Hall, Alexander is continuing a family tradition of community service. Her mother Emilie spent nine years each on the boards of Jericho Elementary School and MMU, worked as the librarian at the Jericho Town Library, and also served on that board. Her father Stuart spent some time as Jericho’s Health Officer and over 30 years on the Planning Commission as well as being one of the principal authors of the Third History of Jericho.
In her spare time, Alexander enjoys taking care of her four horses. “They ride and drive,” she said. “They can pull a carriage.” She has entered the horses in some local shows but not in any high-pressure competitions. Alexander used to take part in the annual Dragon Boat festival but took a break during Covid. She hopes to return to dragon boating in the future.
When Alexander first started working at Town Hall, she saw a lot of the parents of kids she had gone to school with and got to check up on her classmates. These days, she sees a whole new generation, some of whom have never known another person serving in her position.
During her tenure, Alexander has seen a real change in technology. When she started, the office had a dot matrix printer and used the FoxPro database. Jericho started using an electronic voters’ checklist in 1998 and these days, that information is kept on the Secretary of State’s server. Liquor licenses are now renewed via a web portal rather than by mail. Another change is the digitization of the land records. “We still keep the volumes,” Alexander said, “but we have scanned the images and most title searching is done on the computer.” That’s important because Alexander believes future generations will be unable to read the cursive writing on the document or figure out the system of index cards.
Alexander misses Jericho’s dirt roads and the triangular intersections which have been replaced by T stops for safety. She and a friend on Schillhammer Road used to go on four-hour horseback rides through town but now that land connectivity is gone and there are fewer farms. Alexander is pleased that groups in town are working to try to reestablish those trail connections.
One real positive that Alexander sees in town is a new emphasis on diversity, equity, and inclusion which she also sees in her physical therapy work. “There’s a whole new outlook for people’s well-being,” she said. “Vermont may have a head start on the nation in that area because we make a lot of decisions locally. We have a strong voice in what we do.”
