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Annette Loan
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
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WARM SPRINGS - Annette Loan has worked as a deputy clerk under two circuit court clerks. She is asking voters to support her desire to parlay her nearly nine years of experience into the top job at the clerk's office.
Loan describes herself as a "dedicated hard worker" who will do whatever it takes, from coming in early to staying late, to get the job done if she is elected. She is running for clerk because she "enjoys the job and have worked my way up to the position."
She feels her time in the clerk's office is her greatest asset for the position. In her time as a deputy clerk, of the 800 duties of the clerk's office she "has done them all through out the years," she said.
Loan can go down the list of 800 covering everything from recording deeds to typing court orders. She has handled the other tasks like selling fishing and hunting licenses and taking passport applications.
Loan said her greatest strength is working with people. Combined with her experience, she thinks her abilities to get along with people will enable her to be a good clerk if elected.
Loan knows Bath is in the 25th Judicial Circuit and can name most of the counties and cities in the circuit and the names of all four judges serving the circuit.
Loan admits she has not had a job that was completely supervisory. She has at times been placed over other employees to make sure a job is done, she noted, particularly when she worked in the school system.
While some people might see her lack of supervisory or management experience as a liability, Loan says she doesn't have any weaknesses that would affect her ability to do the job. "I know what's going on," she said.
Loan jokes she has been called a "law baby" because her birthday is July 1, the day the state budget starts and when most new laws go into effect. The duties of the clerk's office are spelled out in the Code of Virginia, but the clerk's office is overseen by the Supreme Court, she said.
Bath Court records are not yet available online, said Loan. She thinks some records are available if a person or company is willing to pay a fee. According to Loan, county records including deeds back to 1997 have been stored on a computer and could be made available online.
But, said Loan, before all those records can be put online, the Social Security numbers and dates of birth would have to be removed to help prevent identify theft. She said eventually everyone would have online access to court records and other records filed in the clerk's office.
If elected clerk, Loan would have the deputy position she would vacate open to fill, but she doesn't plan to replace any of the other current deputies. "It would be silly to bring somebody in off the street if we have good workers," she said.
"I don't put myself over and beyond anyone," Loan said. She is running on her own merits rather than against the other candidates, she said. "I have the experience a lot of them don't have. I've worked in the office. I know what is going on."
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