County Administrator Lynchard looks ahead to retirement
Photo: DeSoto County Administrator Vanessa Lynchard at her desk in the County Administration Building in Hernando. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
DeSoto County Administrator Vanessa Lynchard gets involved with a lot of meetings in her role with the county; sessions with supervisors, county department heads, local government leaders and others.
But, Lynchard is looking especially forward to the meetings she will have after Dec. 31. Agendas, budgets and operations will be nowhere to be seen in these sessions, mostly it’ll be about a grandma having a great time with her grandkids. Lynchard is retiring from her duties with the county at the end of the year.
“I’m going to do whatever I want to and I’m going to be able to spend more time with my grandchildren,” Lynchard said Monday to DeSoto County News. “ We have one that lives far away, in Olympia (Washington). So, I plan to be able to be a bigger part of his life, and then the two that are here, I want to be able to go to their school things and just be Grandma.”
If you follow DeSoto County Government on social media, you may have recently noticed that the county is advertising for a new County Administrator. That is because Lynchard, who has been in the position since August, 2012, enters retirement at the end of the calendar year.
A major part of Lynchard’s position is to work with the Board of Supervisors in putting together its budget for the next fiscal year. It’s a budget currently in the range of $350 million that has not been funded with a millage increase in a quarter of a century.
Lynchard credits the determined work of the Board of Supervisors in growing the county while keeping the millage rate stable.
“They have accomplished a tremendous amount of work and to have 25 budgets without a tax increase is pretty unbelievable,” Lynchard said. “The board works very hard at trying to make sure that the money is spent where it needs to be spent, and plan for the needs of the County currently and in the future. It’s a really interesting job.”
She added that DeSoto County has been blessed with population and business growth that has allowed taxes for individuals to remain at the level it has been, mentioning the combination of DeSoto County Economic Council for business, the cities for retail and infrastructure, school district for its level of education and the First Regional Library system.
“There’s so many things, and each one of them contribute to our success,” Lynchard said.
Discussions for the next fiscal year budget will soon begin and Lynchard will be involved in the process as she has for many years. But once it’s settled and put into place, Lynchard can begin to pay more attention to “grandma time.” Husband Percy Lynchard Jr., a Third Chancery District judge, will soon join her when his term ends.
“We are looking forward to it, travel some and just being able to have the freedom to do the things that we want to do,” Lynchard said. It may involve some fishing at their cabin. But no agendas, no budgets, and a lot of grandma and grandpa time.
