After 44 years, retiring Little Rock assessor knows her township well

PLANO – When Marie Bracken started government work in the property assessment business, penmanship mattered. In particular, the ability to write numerals precisely was very important.

Bracken came to Kendall County with her family as a youngster in 1963, grew up in Kendall Township and graduated from Yorkville High School in 1969.

Right out of high school Bracken got a job working at the Western Electric plant in Montgomery, soldering circuit boards. She lasted in the job for three months.

“I got bored,” Bracken said.

When Bracken learned of an opportunity to work as a clerk in the Kendall County Supervisor of Assessments Office, she interviewed with Supervisor LaVerne Hanson.

The interview was more of an exercise, with the supervisor putting Bracken to work demonstrating her handwriting, printing and those all-important numerical figures.

“He wanted to see good handwriting and the way I wrote my numbers,” Bracken said.

She got the job.

“We wrote everything manually in the assessments,” Bracken said.

Bracken’s attention to detail did not go unnoticed. And her ambition to learn led to classes in property appraising and gaining certification.

By 1977 and living in Plano, Bracken was appointed to the post of Little Rock Township Assessor. She would remain in that job for 44 years.

Bracken is retiring on Dec. 31, 2021, after seeing first-hand tremendous change and development, both in Little Rock Township and in her own line of work.

“I’ve been treated very well by the residents and taxpayers of Little Rock Township and Plano,” Bracken said from her desk in the township building at 611 W. Main St. in Plano.

“I like my job. I like the people,” Bracken said, while noting that she is often the person to hear from residents when they receive their property tax bills.

“They get a little irritated,” Bracken said. “But I’ve always kept the door open and tried to help as much as I can.”

That includes helping homeowners get the property tax exemptions to which they are entitled.

When Bracken was first appointed to the assessor’s role, it was a part-time job.

Later, it became a full-time position and she ran for election, winning. Bracken faced two more election challenges, after which no one ran against her again. That was many years ago.

“I was just lucky to get elected,” Bracken said modestly. “The town has really supported me and I do appreciate that.”

Voters appreciated Bracken too, electing her repeatedly not only to the township assessor’s post, but also to a seat on the Kendall County Board.

After several terms, Bracken left the county board in 2000. Bracken said she learned from the experience.

“You have to listen. You might have your own opinion, but you have to listen to be convinced to vote differently,” Bracken said.

Bracken has chronicled the development of Plano and Little Rock Township in the ledgers of her property assessments. Plano was much different when she started.

“This was an old industrial town,” Bracken said.

While there are still some industrial uses, including the nearby Menards Distribution Center and the Grundy Redi Mix, most of the old foundries are gone.

Much of the township’s property tax base now relies on the many retail developments that have occurred, including Walmart and the Indian Springs shopping center in Sandwich.

The big change has been the Lakewood Springs subdivision, which has added many new residents to the Plano community.

Assessing property value is a complex business and is just one part of an even more complex system for determining property taxes.

For farmland, the value is calculated on a complicated “productivity index” that takes into account the type of soil, the contribution of the farm’s buildings to the enterprise and many other factors. Bracken recites these details with ease.

Determining the value of a new residential property is easy, Bracken said, while calculating the value of commercial buildings in downtown Plano is much more difficult.

“The old downtown is harder to determine because of depreciation,” Bracken said.

While computer screens long ago replaced handwritten ledgers for recording Bracken’s assessments, the work remains labor-intensive and detail-oriented.

“You have to know your township,” Bracken said. “We’re constantly updating” the assessment rolls.

Working with Bracken for the last 13 years to update those assessments is Monica Kleinmaier of Plano, who happens to be Bracken’s sister.

Kleinmaier was elected assessor last spring and is taking over the post upon Bracken’s retirement.

Bracken is hoping to resume bowling and golf, activities she gave up because of the pandemic. She also is looking forward to doing some traveling with her husband to visit relatives.

Marie McNelis was 49 years old when she married Stan Bracken.

“I had made up my mind I was going to be an old maid,” Marie Bracken said, laughing, adding that she and Stan have been very happy.

“His kids treat me nice,” Bracken said.