Longtime town clerk won’t seek another term

WINSTED — Town Clerk Sheila Sedlak won’t seek another term in office, saying it’s time to focus on family as well as to let someone new fill the post.

“After eight years as Assistant Town Clerk and 21 years as Town Clerk for the Town of Winchester, I have decided not to seek re-election in November and will retire at the end of my term on December 31,” Sedlak said in a statement Wednesday.

“I thought, give someone else a chance,” Sedlak said. “I do love what I’m doing, I don’t dread coming into work in the morning and I like helping people.

“But my family all want me to retire,” she said. “We’d like to do some traveling, and I want to be with my six grandkids. They’re all wonderful, beautiful kids and we’re close. Gramma does Sunday dinners a lot, and we have the kids up for those. We enjoy them so much.”

Mayor Candy Perez said the town will miss Sedlak.

“She (is) often the first person people will meet

when they come to Town Hall, and she always has a smile on,” Perez said. “She cares deeply for the town and our history, by being tenacious about restoring records. She also implemented many technological advances, and was always attending training at the state level, to make sure the clerk’s office was up to date. She always was thinking about the best interests of the community.”

Sedlak said she wanted to give the town plenty of notice to find her replacement. “They have nine months to find someone,” she said.

Sedlak is a Democrat and has run on the party’s ticket for elections since 2000. It’s possible that the Democratic Town Committee will decide on a candidate during its caucus this summer.

“She’s the nicest person,” said Assistant Town Clerk Janice Flaherty.

“We’ll miss her very much.”

Keeping records of the town’s history has always been a big part of her job. “I hope it will be someone who will come in and really care about history, and doesn’t just want to clean out files,” Sedlak said. “There’s a lot of history in this town and in this office, and I really want to protect it . ... After 28 years, I care.”

Sedlak share a particular memory, of helping people find information, that has stayed with her for many years.

“There was a family in town when the Gilbert Home (an orphanage) was open, and they had to put all of their kids there — three boys and a girl,” she said. “The girl was adopted, but the boys never were, and they grew up in the Gilbert Home. One day, the woman’s daughter-in-law called me and said, this woman had never met her brothers. I knew right where to go.

“I contacted the Gilbert School, because they kept the records private, but they did open them up for families,” Sedlak said. “I knew a man who had grown up at the home, and I called him up. He asked for her name, and told me the brothers were all still alive. In fact, one of them was his best friend, who lived in Torrington.”

The woman, who was in her 80s, was reunited with her three brothers. “It’s truly been my pleasure to have these opportunities to help people,” Sedlak said.

Sedlak