By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter

            Chiefland City Manager Mary Ellzey announced her retirement at Monday’s city commission meeting after 38 ½ years with the city.

            She served first as a police clerk, then deputy clerk in City Hall for 24 years, and 6 years as city manager.

            Her final day is March 30.

            “I don’t want to work until I die, number one,” she said afterward when asked why she was retiring. “That’s basically it. It’s time to go.”

            She said she had been thinking about retiring for some time but always put off a final decision, saying “it wasn’t going to be this year. Maybe it would be next year.”

            “I just prayed and prayed and prayed about it, looked at the calendar. That’s the day,” she said.

             Her husband Jimmy Ellzey and daughter Brooke Willis were present to watch her retirement announcement. They planned to take her out for dinner after the meeting.

            City Commissioner Lewrissa Mainwaring showered Ellzey with high praise.

            “Ms. Mary I have already said you’re amazing. I will do everything in my power to support you because life is so short,” Mainwaring said. “It will never be the same. Your knowledge is out of this world. I wish you the very best.”

            City Attorney Norm Fugate told a story about Ellzey that he doubted few people knew about.

            “A day or two after Hurricane Hermine hit Cedar Key, we’re down there on the street in front of our office and who do I see cleaning up the streets of Cedar Key but the city manager of Chiefland,” Fugate said.

            Ellzey told commissioners she would prepare a timeline for advertising the city manager position, setting a salary range, writing a job description, and arranging for interviews with the board.

            Ellzey was hired as a police clerk by former Police Chief Oscar Underwood on March 7, 1983, after Deenie Parker, wife of then City Manager Garrett Parker, announced she was retiring.

            “I had two days of training,” she said.

            She served three police chiefs – Underwood, Donald Anderson, and Roger Hemond. She left the police department to work in City Hall when Hemond was chief. All three chiefs have passed away.

She worked initially for former City Manager Earl Cannon in City Hall.

            Ellzey has become an icon in Chiefland city government, a stabilizing force with her knowledge of the city, its history, and how city government works in the modern era.

            Ellzey was given loving hugs by commissioners after the meeting ended.

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City of Chiefland Regular Meeting February 22, 2021; Posted February 22, 2021