Gulf Stream Mayor Scott Morgan presents Town Clerk Rita Taylor with a plaque Feb. 12 recognizing her dedication to the town. The Town Commission surprised Taylor by naming the Town Hall library in her honor. Taylor has worked for the town for 31 years. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
The one-room library inside Town Hall is now the “Rita L. Taylor Gulf Stream Library” in a show of gratitude for the town clerk’s 31 years of service.
“Rita has been over those years the face of this town, and it is her relationship with the residents here that has been so significant,” Mayor Scott Morgan said as commissioners approved the naming Feb. 12.
Taylor became only the second person in Gulf Stream to have something named after her. She was surprised by the gesture, which came while officials were celebrating her birthday. The town’s commission chambers are named for the late and longtime Mayor William F. Koch Jr.
“I don’t know of any place that I would have rather spent 31 years,” Taylor said. “I love it here. I guess it’s too much to ask for another 31 years.”
Besides being a reading room, the library is where residents and architects meet with Taylor to review building plans and where town commissioners chat with her over upcoming agenda items.
Taylor, whose age was not disclosed, previously served 20 years as clerk in Ocean Ridge. Meanwhile, she was an alderwoman and volunteer clerk in Briny Breezes, where she owns a second home, from the early 1970s to the late 2000s.
Taylor is Gulf Stream’s second-longest tenured employee. Police Chief Edward Allen joined Gulf Stream’s police force in 1988.
Putting in decades of public service is not exactly rare in Gulf Stream. Koch was in his 46th year as mayor when he died in 2012. Town Manager William Thrasher retired in 2017 after 21 years of employment and now holds the same spot in Briny Breezes.
And Commissioner Joan Orthwein was honored by the Florida League of Cities in 2020 for her 25 years as an elected official. That did not include seven years on the Architectural Review and Planning Board.
“I feel that this is my second home,” Taylor said of Town Hall. “And I enjoy every minute of it — or most every minute.” Ú
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