Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Thursday, February 8, 2018
Carolyn Smith Plans to Retire
Carolyn Smith, a materials technician, is retiring from the DPU Warehouse effective March 1 with
plans to volunteer at the Richmond Animal League and finally have time for her passion, working in the theater. Smith, whose voice is the one you hear on the DPU Call Center recorded messages, was a theater arts major at Hiram College in Ohio and worked as a stage manager for Chamberlayne Actors Theatre and the outdoor Virginia Historical Theatre near Berkeley Plantation where she played Francis Flute in summer productions of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Clytemnestra in Sophocles’ Antigone.
“Theater is extremely time-consuming when you have to be at work at 7 a.m. (at a day job) and you were up until 1 a.m. (at the theater). You need the time to devote to rehearsals and performances, which I didn’t working full-time,” she said.
She started city employment in 1987 in Procurement Services as the front desk receptionist when they were located at Parker Field. After Procurement moved to City Hall, she was promoted to purchasing assistant and in 1997 transferred to DPU’s warehouse as a materials technician.
When she started at the DPU Operations Center there was a significant feral cat population on the property. She took on this challenge with her usual determination and contacted Chuck Marchant at the city’s Animal Care and Control, looking for a solution. He agreed that if she could trap the feral cats, he would have someone pick them up and the Richmond SPCA would spay or neuter the cats for free and return them. (Many feral cats are not suitable for adoption, and returning them, after they can no longer breed, to a familiar area where they know how to hunt and survive is the best solution for them.) Carolyn had the full support of former DPU Director Chris Beschler for this project, and her dedication to the trap-neuter and return program (TNR) resulted in all the cats being neutered. Her selfless dedication to the TNR program prevented the feral cat population from increasing and with natural attrition, the population diminished over time. The TNR program was so successful that there are currently no feral cats at the DPU Operations Center.
One cat, Baby Luv, lived inside the warehouse for many years and was a welcomed and familiar visitor to the offices, but Smith eventually took her home. “It was an adjustment for her to be in a small house instead of a large warehouse, but she learned and now uses a litter box and bosses around my very large male cat, Vladimir.”
Carolyn’s presence will continue as DPU’s interactive voice response. She won the contest to be the voice of the DPU Call Center in December 2012. The contest was judged by Juan Conde of WRIC and Gene Lepley, public information manager for the Police Department and formally with WWBT. The judges said her voice was “clear and distinct and conveyed warmth,” no doubt a result of her training as an actress.
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| Carolyn Smith |
“Theater is extremely time-consuming when you have to be at work at 7 a.m. (at a day job) and you were up until 1 a.m. (at the theater). You need the time to devote to rehearsals and performances, which I didn’t working full-time,” she said.
She started city employment in 1987 in Procurement Services as the front desk receptionist when they were located at Parker Field. After Procurement moved to City Hall, she was promoted to purchasing assistant and in 1997 transferred to DPU’s warehouse as a materials technician.
When she started at the DPU Operations Center there was a significant feral cat population on the property. She took on this challenge with her usual determination and contacted Chuck Marchant at the city’s Animal Care and Control, looking for a solution. He agreed that if she could trap the feral cats, he would have someone pick them up and the Richmond SPCA would spay or neuter the cats for free and return them. (Many feral cats are not suitable for adoption, and returning them, after they can no longer breed, to a familiar area where they know how to hunt and survive is the best solution for them.) Carolyn had the full support of former DPU Director Chris Beschler for this project, and her dedication to the trap-neuter and return program (TNR) resulted in all the cats being neutered. Her selfless dedication to the TNR program prevented the feral cat population from increasing and with natural attrition, the population diminished over time. The TNR program was so successful that there are currently no feral cats at the DPU Operations Center.
One cat, Baby Luv, lived inside the warehouse for many years and was a welcomed and familiar visitor to the offices, but Smith eventually took her home. “It was an adjustment for her to be in a small house instead of a large warehouse, but she learned and now uses a litter box and bosses around my very large male cat, Vladimir.”
Carolyn’s presence will continue as DPU’s interactive voice response. She won the contest to be the voice of the DPU Call Center in December 2012. The contest was judged by Juan Conde of WRIC and Gene Lepley, public information manager for the Police Department and formally with WWBT. The judges said her voice was “clear and distinct and conveyed warmth,” no doubt a result of her training as an actress.
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