By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw
WARSAW — Melissa Boggs has announced her intentions to run for Clerk of Circuit and Superior Courts in Kosciusko County.
Boggs is entering her 25th year as a county employee, including 21 years with the clerk’s office.
She worked for Judge Joe Sutton in Superior Court 3 as his secretary for four years before becoming Chief Deputy when Ann Torpy became the current clerk.
“I’ve really enjoyed it here, and I couldn’t imagine myself doing different so I stuck around,” Boggs said.
Her main role is oversight of elections, assisting the public, training staff, and communicating with other county offices.
Torpy is term-limited and has been in her current position for some 11 years after replacing Jason McSherry who resigned in the middle of his term.
Boggs and Torpy have worked side-by-side for many years and that close working relationship will likely continue.
“Her and I have always worked fairly close together,” Boggs said. “If I’m elected she will be my chief deputy.”
Boggs began working in the clerks office through a coop program while attending Warsaw Community High School.
She originally wanted to be a journalist, but opted for a coop position in the Justice Building because the Times-Union had no room for the program. That second option opened her eyes to many of the responsibilities in county government and she liked it.
While in college, she remembers a professor telling her that journalism was not the job for her if she wanted to stay home on the weekends.
That was soon reinforced by Times-Union photographer Gary Nieter.
“I happened to live across the street from Gary Nieter so I remember so many times, him playing ball with his boys and leaving in the middle of playing ball because there was something he needed to take a photograph of,” Boggs recalled, “and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, he was telling the truth — this is not what I want.’ “
Boggs is a 1998 graduate of Warsaw Community High School and attended Vincennes University.
She is 44, married and has two children.
She’s the first to file to run for clerk for the Republican primary in May.
The filing period begins in early January.
