Counting them up

A lot can change in four decades – just ask Barb Rohwer.

The longtime local official will wrap up 42 years of service to the O'Brien County Auditor's Office when the calendar flips to January. From election rule changes to counting gopher feet, the job has thrown several curveballs at Rohwer over the years.

"It just seemed like it was the right time for me to retire," she said. "I'm ready to slow down a little from the daily work."

After obtaining her associate's degree in accounting, Rohwer was hired as a clerk in the auditor's office in March of 1982. In 1984, the auditor needed to take early retirement to care for a family member. The deputy auditor at that time ran and was elected in 1984, but decided one term was enough.

The rest is history, as Rohwer was elected to replace her colleague in 1988.

"To me it just made sense as the next step since I would be helping to train a new person either way," she said.

Rohwer noted the most obvious change to auditor's office has been computerization. Additionally, she remembers when March 1 was circled in red on the calendar.

"That was the biggest day for farmland transfers, but we don't see that now," she said.

Rohwer's job has given her a variety of responsibilities over the years; some mundane and some unique. One of her first duties was issuing dog licenses to county residents, a practice that has since been retired.

"The field assessors would bring in the paperwork from each township and I would send out the tags," she recalled. "If you didn't license your dog, the penalty would go on your property taxes."

Another odd duty required her to handle the remains of dead rodents.

"The ultimate was collecting gopher feet," she said. "The county paid a bounty of 25 cents for a pair of feet. We had to count them out to be sure we didn't over pay."

While tallying gopher paws may be a thing of the past, other duties have remained the same. Rohwer's office has constantly evolved to keep up with ever-changing election laws over the past four decades. From new equipment to the expansion of absentee voting, things today are night and day from the 1980s.

Rohwer begrudged the automatic voting machines of the past, which left no paper trail to follow if issues arose.

"They were beasts," she said. "We stored the machines at the polling places because they were so big and heavy. The custodian and I would spend at least a week driving to the various polling places to set up the machines before every election."

Good people have also been a constant for Rohwer during the past 42 years. She has forged strong relationships with her coworkers, whom she'll miss the most.

"When you work with the same people each day for 40-plus years, they aren't just coworkers, they become family," she said.

Though her time in the auditor's office will soon end, Rohwer isn't done serving the public.

She successfully ran for the District 2 supervisor seat this fall, punching a four-year term on an uncontested ballot in the general election. Prior to that, she unseated incumbent John Steensma, of Sanborn, in the GOP primary.

Rohwer's extensive background in local government led her to eye the seat. As county auditor, she served as the board of supervisors' secretary for 35 years and gained vast knowledge on issues like budgeting and taxation.

"I feel that I still can be beneficial to the county," she said.

Her title might be changing, but Rohwer will always look back at her time as auditor fondly.

"It was never boring," she said.