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The Taupo District Council’s Information Services (IS) public counter will be decommissioned on Friday and incorporated into the customer service centre of the Lake Terrace office, while on the same day two key staff celebrate 20 years working together.

The Information Services department will remain in the old prefab building at the back of the main office. The public counter will be decommissioned on Friday 31 July, which is the same day that two of its valued employees celebrate 20 years working together for the IS team.

Mandy Wilson and Ellen Kinred started work at the council together on 31 July 1989, only about 6 months after the amalgamation of the county and borough councils, and have been working together ever since.

Ms Kinred says “Funnily enough Mandy and I didn’t actually get on when we first started, but in the last 20 years we’ve grown to become really good friends.”

Ms Kinred originally got her job thanks to her experience with reading microfiche. She points out that in the wake of Rogernomics in the late 80’s it was much more difficult to find employment, so she is grateful to the Taupo District Council for all the good years “It has been a wonderful place to work, and continues to get better every year.”

Ellen and Mandy have seen their fair share of changes over the years “We have watched New Zealand change, especially working for a council.” She recalls the old days before childcare was commonplace “We didn’t have daycare so the kids just came to work with us after school. They would hide under the desk and have to keep quiet if a customer came in.”

Ms Kinred also recalls that the IS team had the only computer then, and typing pools “Now everybody has a PC.” She also notes that the council is a lot more multicultural than when they both began.

Originally starting out microfilming, Mandy and Ellen were moved into the Central Information Services team. The team will now undergo another change, now becoming the ‘Information Management’ department.

The decision to move the IS front counter was made to improve business processes and reduce duplication.

The old IS front counter will be decommissioned on Friday 31 July, with some of the team moving into the main Lake Terrace office. All public enquiries for information can now be made at the main customer service centre.