Sandy Bailey's stay at Gilford Town Hall coming to a close

GILFORD — After 12 years with the town working in various administrative capacities, Sandy Bailey will be retiring in the middle of April.

Bailey, who was hired in 2003 as a planning administrator and two years later promoted to administrative assistant to the town administrator said she and her husband are retiring at the same time.

"I've been working on a retirement plan for two years," said Bailey. "I decided about two years ago that this is what I want to do."

Bailey talked about her rather varied career yesterday, including the time she and her husband spent operating a hotel on the New Jersey shore.

"We did that for about three years," she said. They sold when the state decided her property would be a great place for an exit ramp off the Garden State Throughway.

"I learned the pros and cons of working with my husband," she said.

After they sold the hotel, Bailey and her husband returned home to Northwood, N.H. to assist with his parents.

She was hired as a planning assistant in 2003 by John Ayer and Polly Sanfacon, she said, noting that when she lived in Northwood before the New Jersey adventure, she had worked in their planning department.

In 2005, she was "recruited" by then Town Administrator Evans Juris to be his assistant and stayed in the position, working briefly with Debra Shackett and John Markland before current Town Administrator Scott Dunn was hired in August of 2008.

Known for keeping her own counsel, Bailey said she watched a lot of interesting things happen during her years upstairs but said her style isn't talking out of school.

"I'm also very easy-going and flexible," she said.

Bailey has four granddaughters with whom she plans on spending a lot more time.

"I was always a working grandmother," she said, adding that now she can help her daughters with daycare and take care of her grandchildren when they're sick just like her mother did for her when her children were young.

She said her husband will continue working part-time for at least a few more years and traveling across the United States is one of their long-term goals.

Bailey said her husband also built her a "granny cave" where she can go and work on her many crafts and hobbies — both with and without her grandchildren.

"I have a radio and my computer and I have been known to consume a glass of wine in there on occasion," she said.

Both Bailey and her husband have a passion for woodworking.

"We exchange tools for Christmas," she said. "This year I got a chop saw and he got a drill press."

She said she and her two older granddaughters made many holiday projects and with two of her granddaughters both younger than three, she looks forward to making many, many more of them.

As for Gilford, she said she'll miss the people.

"We're a little work family here and I'm really going to miss that," she said.

When asked what she's not going to miss, she said that one was easy — night meetings with the selectmen.

"Nothing personal," she said. "I just like to be home at night."

CUTLINE: (Sandy Bailey) Sandy Bailey in a familiar pose at a very familiar desk in the Gilford town offices. She is retiring in the middle of April so she can spend more time with her family. (Laconia Daily Sun photo/Gail Ober)