News

By Tim O’Meilia
    
Kathy Clark had been a police dispatcher for the Boca Raton Police Department for 18 years and was taking college courses to become a paralegal when her dad asked her for help.
Could she fill in as a dispatcher in Manalapan? Her father was Manalapan Police Chief Ralph Meadows. How can you say no to dad?
“He got me to come here temporarily. Temporarily lasted 24 years,” Clark said with a laugh.
Clark, who turns 65 this month, retired Jan. 1, after working under four police chiefs over the years.
The daytime dispatcher hidden behind the computer terminals and locked steel door that everyone calls the Point Manalapan gatehouse won’t be Clark any longer.
“I got to know a lot of residents over the years. I hear when they’re sick. I know when they’re gone. I’ve gone to their funerals,” she said.
“A lot of people have been very good to me, and I’m going to miss a lot of them,” she said. “A couple of people told me I can’t retire.”
Born in West Virginia, Clark came with her family to Florida when she was 11, and she lived mostly in Lantana. She graduated from Lake Worth High School and worked as a telephone operator while she studied law enforcement. Boca Raton hired her in 1970.
Clark will have more time to devote to remodeling her home with her significant other of 21 years. She has a son and a grandson. She will also spend more time working on her family genealogy and researching the history of Lantana and Manalapan.
She is one of the founders of the Lantana Historical Society and volunteers at Yesteryear Village at the South Florida Fairgrounds, where the original bridgetender’s house for the Lantana bridge is preserved.
Clark was recognized for her years of service at the Dec. 18 Town Commission meeting.
    She said Police Chief Carmen Mattox has asked whether she would fill in as a dispatcher if the need arose. “Maybe I’ll get the itch,” she said, making no promises. “It’s a good little town.”