If one story can capture Janett McCawley’s three-plus decades of service to the Village of Beecher, it’s this one.
McCawley, who retired as the village’s clerk, went far and beyond the call of duty to make it to a village board meeting when all would have understood if she missed it.
But she didn’t miss it.
“Janett drove back to Beecher from a conference in Michigan in 2021 to swear in a new village president and three trustees and drove back to Michigan that same night to continue her conference,” said Marcy Meyer, the village president who was sworn in that night.
“I believe there was a rainstorm as well. That is dedication to her job.”
McCawley was honored at the Dec. 22 village board meeting on a night that didn’t involve travelling back and forth to a different state.
Meyer said McCawley has been a part of a lot of swearing-in ceremonies over the years.
“She has taken the minutes of hundreds and hundreds of village meetings,” Meyer said of McCawley. “She has sworn in three village presidents, four police chiefs and too many village trustees and police officers to count.”
McCawley started part-time in 1991 with the village and has done a variety of work including being “a mentor, confidant, friend, referee…elected official wrangler…social media master, website Wonder Woman, payroll professional and wi-fi wizard” according to Meyer.
McCawley was emotional when she addressed the board.
“It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that I won’t be getting up in the morning and heading to the village hall every day,” she said. “It’s been a wild, wonderful and occasionally interesting ride.”
She said she has seen a lot of changes in the village and, as clerk, she has heard a lot of unique questions over the years.
She said Village Hall has received phone calls about how to get a divorce, a resident who complained that her tree was replaced with one that had a different leaf color that didn’t match the others in her neighborhood plus one person asking advice about squirrels breaking into a house.
“There are a lot more and some of them you can’t repeat,” she joked.
McCawley loved the job.
“I’m very grateful for the opportunities I’ve had here,” she said. “The village invested in me through training and experiences and allowed me to go places that I probably wouldn’t have gone otherwise and I made so many lifelong friends along the way.”
Meyer has been happy with McCawley’s performance and dedication over the years.
“She likes to stay in the background and be quiet and she does her job,” Meyer said of McCawley. “She has taken on anything that has been asked of her…anything we needed done
at Village Hall.”
New chief sworn in
McCawley’s final swearing-in ceremony came at her final board meeting as new Police Chief John Galvin raised his right hand and officially replaced Terrence Lemming.
Galvin spent 24 years in Country Club Hills including five years as chief, and was recently the director of police operations at American Heritage Protective Services Inc.
Lemming was hired as a six-month interim chief in 2020 but stayed on because he loved the community, according to Meyer.