Assisting As Belmont's Record Keeper

Meg Piccione refers to her job as a dream come true.

Belmont's new assistant town clerk has been extremely happy in the community ever since moving here 23 years ago and relishes the opportunity to serve it in an official capacity.

"I love Belmont and any interaction I've had with town employees over the years has been positive," Piccione said.

"What better opportunity could there be than to work for a town I love?"

She started her new job on July 6 and is still "learning the ropes" and her specific duties. Piccione said, her main responsibility is to help ensure that the office functions at 100 percent capacity whether or not Town Clerk Ellen O'Brien Cushman is sitting at her desk.

"We want to provide top-level service," Piccione said, describing the many functions of the department including running elections, coordinating Town Meeting coverage, granting a wide variety of licenses and a vast amount of record-keeping for vital statistics.

She's been an active volunteer in Belmont – in the classroom and library at the Wellington School and past president of the Chenery Middle School PTO – but has never worked for the town in a professional position.

What got her interested in being the assistant town clerk, Piccione said, was watching Belmont Media Center's coverage of election process for the town clerk this past spring. It was a very active race and campaign, Piccione said, and she learned a lot about what the department does for the town.

"That got my antenna up," she said.

When she saw the job of assistant town clerk advertised on the town's website, Piccione realized how much she wanted to be a part of such a busy department that serves Belmont citizens in countless ways.

Prior to July 6, Piccione worked for Bay Financial Associates in Waltham in the client services department. She spent the evening of the June 14 special election with Cushman to get an idea of the clerk's office workload doing the tally but didn't have any other introduction to her new job until she actually started.

So far, Piccione said, she's learned a lot in the short time she's been the assistant town clerk.

"This is a great staff here in this office," she said. "Everyone has such a positive attitude."

She particularly likes that citizens are often calling or coming into the office for assistance with a myriad of issues. "I hear this is the 'slow season' so I can imagine how vibrant this office can be at other times of the year," she said.

Piccione grew up in West Hartford, CT. After graduating from high school, she went to Holy Cross College where she earned a degree in history. She returned to Hartford for a few years, working in the human resources department at Aetna Insurance Company.

When she married Tony Piccione in 1987, they moved to Belmont where he grew up. They have two sons: Chris, who will be entering seventh grade at the Chenery and Nick, who will be a sophomore at Boston College High School.

In addition to her work for the town, Piccione is a volunteer religious teacher at St. Joseph's Church, a member of the Belmont Garden Club and tends to her own herb and flower garden at her house as well as a large plot at the Rock Meadow Victory Gardens where she has vegetables and flowers. She spends quite a lot of time in her plot at Rock Meadow – going there every other day to weed, water and harvest.