Photo by Joseph Bell
Peggy B. Schneider has won the past six elections for county treasurer and has worked in the office for 27 years.

By Joseph Bell

Staff Writer

For a woman who claims she enjoys change, the past six elections for county treasurer have been redundant: Ridgway resident Peggy B. Schneider wins with ease.
Schneider, who currently resides along Montmorenci Road with husband Carl, has been working out of the treasurer’s office for 27 years.
“I enjoy what I do, I like working with people, helping people, and I enjoy change, believe it or not,” Schneider said. “Even though I might complain about change, I do like it.
“The people, I think, keep bringing me back because they think I’m doing a good job, and that’s the important thing.”

Cameron County
beginnings

Born Nov. 12, 1946, in Beechwood, Schneider was a 1964 Cameron County High School graduate.
After passing high school, Schneider went to work at the Sylvania plant in Emporium for four years during the Vietnam War era.
“We were making the fuse tubes that set off the bombs in Vietnam,” Schneider said. “I didn’t like going to work but it was mandated.”
In 1968, Schneider married her first husband, Terry McClain, and relocated to Elk County that same year.
“My first full-time job was in the 1970s,” Schneider said of her job as a nurse’s aide at Andrew Kaul Memorial Hospital in the extended care unit. “I really enjoyed working with the elderly even though you knew that they weren’t going to go home.
“I was eventually transfered to the surgical wing of the hospital, which was nice because you took care of them and they eventually got to go home. You got to see them get better and that was rewarding.”
To make ends meet, Schneider took a job working evenings at the Carbon Lite Motel doing bookkeeping, ordering supplies, waiting tables and tending bar.
“That has since been torn down and turned into Farmers National Bank,” Schneider said. “I had eventually quit the  hospital to manage the motel, just for better opportunity, basically.
“When the motel was sold, I lost my job, this was around the late 1970s.”

A start in politics

After the Carbon Lite Motel was sold, Schneider started working with the Elk County Democratic Committee chairman, the late Gary Kraus.
“I would help set up voter registration booths, plan dinners and help with candidates’ campaigns,” Schneider said. “Through the democratic party, I secured a part-time job as a clerk typist filling in for a worker on maternity leave at PennDOT.”
After that job ended, Schneider was hired at the Nicklas Insurance Agency for two years as a licensed insurance agent.
“After being let go, and still active with the democrat party, (Kraus) knew I needed employment and when a job became available at the treasurer’s office, he asked Jack Kestler, who was treasurer at that time, to interview me,” Schneider said. “I was hired in July of 1982 as a clerk and was appointed deputy treasurer in 1986.”
Schneider married Paul in 1984 and in 1987, was commissioned treasurer by state governor Bob Casey after Kestler retired.
“Kestler asked me if I wanted to be county treasurer and I didn’t know for sure whether I really wanted to do that or not,” Schneider said. “I talked it over with my husband and other political people.
For Schneider, the decision was a major one.
“I had all the job experience and there were ideas that I had that I wanted to implement in the office, changes that needed to be made, improvements,” Schneider said. “I thought I could really do a good job and I had taken accounting classes as well.
“I just thought I could do that job.”
Schneider had opposition from the democratic party and won the primary by 500 votes which, according to Schneider, is not close by the county’s standards.
“I had opposition in the Fall with the general election but I won that by over 2,000 votes,” Schneider said. “From the start of my work in the treasurer’s office as a clerk, that was 27 years and six elections ago, and I am still here.”

Change, nothing
stays the same

As county treasurer for the past 22 years, Schneider has seen plenty of changes throughout the local county government.
“Most of it has been good,” Schneider said. “A lot of people don’t know that the treasurer’s office has to do the county’s book work, everything for the county, we have 26 to 28 accounts to take care of with the different agencies.
“We’re also an agent for the Commonwealth by law.”
The treasurer’s office works for the Pennsylvania Fish and Game Commission, the Department of Agriculture, and the Pennsylvania State Police records division.
“The treasurer’s office is responsible for issuing hunting, fishing and dog licenses, provisional gun permits, boat registrations, small games of chance and bingo licenses,” Schneider said.
Over the years, to help alleviate the workload, Schneider has welcomed the new wave of technology over the past two decades.
“When I started here, all the sales that we did for the state, all the reporting, that was done manually,” Schneider said. “Computers were a luxury that we just didn’t have but now it’s a necessity, that was one of the big changes.”

Proudest
accomplishment

By today’s standards, the creation of a Web site may not be something that is overly applauded.
But for Schneider, her contribution, the creation of a Web site, was considered a cutting-edge achievement.
“I think the proudest accomplishment for me is my Web site because I’m the first county treasurer in the state to sell dog licenses on the internet,” Schneider said. “I did my own Web site through the help of North Central, which was very helpful, that was probably about five years ago.
“I saved the county taxpayers a lot of money by designing my own Web site. Some of the counties are going through what is called PA licensing, and that’s very expensive, they have to pay monthly fees for it. I’m proud of the fact that I did my own, that’s my proudest personal accomplishment.”

Trouble
on the horizon

According to Schneider, in the near future, Game Commission officials strive to change the law to allow doe licenses to be sold through additional agents, and not exclusively through county treasurer offices across the state.
“The biggest change I see coming is the Game Commission, we’re meeting with them and state representatives because they’re changing the law that says that ‘county treasurer’s are the only ones who can issue doe licenses,’” Schneider said. “By law, we’re the only people who can do that.
“But now they’re looking at different ways to do things, maybe by letting all the agents issue doe licenses, which will take money away from the county.”
According to Schneider, members of the County Treasurers’ Association of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are against the move.
“We as an association are trying to keep them because we do need the money, so that’s the big thing coming up within the next year, there’s going to be some type of change,” Schneider said. “Basically, Wal-Mart does the bulk of the business as far as the hunting licenses are concerned but the doe licenses are the ones that are sent by mail and right now, they have to get those here.
“We’re going to have hearings on this with the treasurers’ association.”