Rubicon's Job Page (Deputy County Clerk)

Currently, I work as a Deputy Clerk of District Court in the Carbon County Courthouse and have done so since August of 2000. Prior to that, I worked in the Carbon County Clerk's Office, in the Land Office.

My responsibilities at the current time are to handle all felony criminal cases in District Court. I receive paperwork pertaining to an active cases which I 'docket' into the computer. This is a synopsis of what the document contains. I then scan all pages into the network so we can view and print copies later. Lastly, I file this paperwork or take it to the District Court Judge for his perusal.

I also am present during all criminal hearings as the representative of the Clerk. I take notes pertaining to the proceedings to assist the Judge, the Court and the Court Reporter in documenting what happened.

I have been trained by the Clerk to attend jury trials from start to finish in the case that the Clerk could not perform these duties. This is my least favorite part of the job as it is very stressful to be in front of the entire courtroom trying to swear in the jurors, the Bailiff and witnesses but it is a responsibility I take on to help with the operation of the office.

I also maintain our jury pool on the computer so we can keep track of calling and notifying jurors of upcoming trials. I wrote a simple computer program which we use to enter the names, update information received from jurors and to eventually send out questionnaires to the prospective juror4s.

I also handle all appeals whether they are appeals from our court to the Supreme Court Of Wyoming or from other courts to our court. Needless to say, these jobs keep me very busy (sometimes too busy) but it is very challenging and no day is exactly like the previous.

Immediatly prior to the job I now have, I worked in the Carbon County Clerk's Office, in the Land Office. I started at this job in March of 1994 after being offered a job there by the then Clerk, Bill Harshman. Bill was a super person and a great boss and he allowed me to begin a career that would allow me to support my family away from the railroad. I will always be grateful for the chance he gave me, a man who had been working for the railroad for almost 20 years and at first glance didn't have many other skills.

My job in the Land Office was to work with one other person to receive all documents pertaining to the ownership of lands and properties in Carbon County. We processed these documents through the process, entering all pertinent information into a computer network, scanning these documents and making this information available for the public to do searches upon. We also did all paperwork involved with obtaining a marriage license (we never did figure out why this job was given to the Land Office but that's the way it was).

I was perfectly content at this job. I liked it, I was pretty good at it, we were very much left to our own devices, I liked the person I was working with and things were going well. Then Bill, my boss became quite ill with breathing problems which forced him to quit. He then appointed his head deputy to his position and my world changed in a way I could barely stand. The new boss was a woman who had an extreme power complex and had problems dealing with men. My co-worker and I were both men and she made our lives as much a hell on earth as she possibly could. After about 1-1/2 years of this situation, I simply had to get out. My co-worker felt the same way and we both escaped at about the same time. He got married and moved to Tennessee and I was lucky enough to find a job in the same building in the Clerk Of District Court's Office.

Bill Harshman, the man who had shown confidence in me and who gave me a shot, died of complications with Emphasema about the time I left the Land Office. All who worked for him mourned for him and we will all miss him, not only for being a great boss, but for being a genuinely nice guy. The place is not the same without him, it is now run by a different tyrant with a power complex but that doesn't bother me a lot now because she has no control over me whatsoever.

For almost 20 years, I worked for the Union Pacific Railroad, first as a sheetmetal worker and then I transferred to train service. I was a brakeman until 1978, at which time I was promoted to conductor, a job I held until December 1993 when I took a separation allowance offered to me by the railroad.

I enjoyed my job a great deal when I first started working in train service, it was a high paying job where I had the opportunity to see the countryside and every day was different from the one before. I had a lot of responsibility and I took pride in accomplishing a job and doing it in a timely manner

As time passed, I became more and more disillusioned with the job and my lifestyle in general. I was gone away from home for approximately 24 hours at a time and then home with my family only 24 hours. In the process of trying to raise a family, I missed a great deal of those times in which a young father wants to participate in or watch.

I worked, off and on, on what was called a 'reserve' board for several years before I finally left the company. That was a terrific situation where I made 70% of my previous wage but did not go to work for months at a time. This board was created because of an excess of employees and I certainly enjoyed that and got a great deal of things accomplished. At this time, I opened and operated a Comic Book and Trading Card Shop in downtown Rawlins.

Bus Boy: Gay Johnson's Truck Stop - This was the very first job I ever had and I was only 14 years old. My parents had to drive me to work and then pick me up afterward. I didn't make a lot of money, maybe $1.50 an hour but the waitresses were supposed to share part of their tips with me, they very seldom did. This was a very physical job and after an 8-hour shift I was tired, even being only 14 years old. I worked there the summer of 1967, right before going into High School.

Flower Delivery Person: Art Floral & Gift - I worked here for two years while I was in High School. I started the summer before going into the 11th grade. I had my drivers license so my job was to help around the shop, mostly cleaning up and then making flower deliveries after school and on Saturday mornings. This job gave me money for gas for my car, to pay my insurance and for my clothes and necessities for school. It was a great working experience and I really enjoyed it. I worked there from the summer of 1968 until May of 1970.

Laborer: City Of Rawlins - I worked here for two summers while I was going to college. I started out in the street department but mostly was working in the parks raking, mowing and just general clean-up and maintenance. During my first summer, they moved me to the water and sewer department which I liked a lot more. It was not nearly as boring, I was always busy helping dig ditches, filling in ditches and just general labor work in that department.

Laborer: Colorado Interstate Gas - I worked this job one summer while I was still attending college. It was the summer before I had decided I was going to move to Montana to work and gain my residency so I could go to college there. This was a great job where I worked on a painting crew of 3 other guys my own age. We were assigned two pickups which we traded off driving into the field and it was our job to paint gas installations in the Red Desert. We had a lot of independence and we saw and were out in some beautiful country. It was great fun. I worked there the summer of 1972.

Surveror Helper/Draftsman: Arch Mineral - I got a job here shortly after returning from Montana after I was unable to find a job in Billings. I wasn't in Billings long... I could not find a job, I was running out of money and I was very homesick so I returned home. I first started as a surveyor helper running a rod but after a few months at that, they learned that I had some schooling in and an aptitude for drafting so they placed me in the office as a draftsman after one of the other draftsmene didn't work out. I worked in that capacity for the remainder of the winter and the next summer. It was early summer of that year (1973) when I met and started dating my future wife Peggy. I had already decided that I was going to return to the University Of Wyoming to try to get my degree. Peggy had just graduated high school and was going to go to beauty school that fall. As I have said before, we both did what we had planned but my future plans changed drastically from here.

Draftsman: Volk & Harrison (Structural Engineers) - I moved to Casper in January 1974 to be close to Peggy and found a job with this company. I had my own basement apartment and life was good. I had a job I loved, was living in the same town as my girlfriend and spent all my spare time with her, I love Casper, I had a little money to spend on my passions like stereos, photography and I was happy. I worked there until May of 1974 when I moved back to Rawlins to work on the Railroad and get married.

Correctional Officer: Wyoming State Penitentiary - I got a job at the pen in my attempt at getting away from the railroad. I was on the reserve board and not working so I took this job in the hopes another buy-off would come up and I could take it since I had another income. My luck didn't quite work out and I was called back to work after working there for about 7 months. I didn't really like that job even though I was moved into the canteen which is like a convenience store within the prison walls. I sold inmates their magazines, cigarettes, pop and about any other items they needed. I quit this job in November of 1993 to return to the railroad.

Medical Transcriptionist: Memorial Hospital of Carbon County - Only a month after returning to the railroad, another buy-off was made available so after much hand-wringing and worry, I took the buy-off and quit the railroad. I immediately went out looking for a job and the first one which came along was at the Hospital. I had been working on computers for so long, I had become a good typist and could consistently type about 60 wpm so I got the job. I had lots of applilcations in around town but went to work there. I liked the job but it was a little stressful trying to accurately type what doctors (some of whom did not speak English very well) had dictated. After about 2 months there I was offered a job with the county in the Clerk's Office and since it was for more money, better benefits and what I thought would be a better job, I gave my notice and started with the County in March of 1994.

As they say, the rest is history and I am now very content with my job. It has been a long journey but I am hopeful I will be able to retire from this job. My boss has been very generous about getting me pay increases and I am making enough money to enjoy a good life. Retirement will hopefully be an easy and peaceful time for Peggy and I as I should be able to draw a Railroad retirement since I worked just short of 20 years there as well as a State of Wyomign retirement since I will have about 20 years with the County by the time I retire. We invested most of the money from my substantial buy-off and it has been growing for 11 years and will hopefully grow for another 10 years before retirement. We are hopeful money will not be a huge worry and we can travel which we have wanted to do for many years. I'm trying to enjoy every day with my wife and kids and grand-daughter. Life has been very, very good to me and I pray it will continue that way.

E-mail me with your comments and/or suggestions

Back to Rubicon's Homepage

Go to the next page (My hobbies)

Go to the previous page (About me)