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After more than five decades with Georgetown County, Susan Edwards reflects on change and service
Summary
Susan Edwards described starting in 1971 in the assessor’s office, manual tax roll preparation, the move to appraisal software and GIS, and her motivation to help taxpayers during a 55‑year county career.
Susan Edwards, a long‑time Georgetown County employee who marked 55 years of service, told host Jackie Broach she began working in 1971 in the assessor’s office, when staff prepared tax rolls and notices by hand and relied on a large shared machine for computations. “We started out we had to write our own tax textbooks,” Edwards said, recalling the early manual processes.
Edwards described the slow introduction of computers and software, the office’s move to appraisal programs, the migration of mapping responsibilities to GIS, and how those changes reduced the need for in‑person visits to the courthouse. She said the assessor’s office once had a very small staff and a single appraiser who measured parcels countywide; today, appraiser staffing has increased to seven.
Asked what kept her in public service, Edwards said it was “working with the citizens” and the satisfaction of helping taxpayers navigate changing laws and procedures. She noted appeals have been rare in her tenure and recounted a period after her husband’s death when she resumed work in a different role to help the office transition.
Edwards’ account documents institutional changes in county operations over decades; the interview does not provide independent documentation of staffing counts or case totals beyond Edwards’ recollections.
