As the utility billing customer service representative for the City of Seward for the past 28 years, Ronda Baumbach's knowledge of Seward homes is vast, but she still appreciates a specific address from customers.
“We joke about the 'pink house on the corner' a lot,” she said. “We get people who call the office and give us an order and instead of an address, they'll say something like, 'We're at the pink house on the corner.' We need a specific address.”
However, with her April 4 retirement approaching, the “pink house on the corner” puzzles will be less frequent for her.
“I'm really going to miss the people I work with, the public and always knowing what's going on with the city,” she said. “I'm just going to miss being down there where everything is happening.”
Baumbach, a Seward native, first came to the utilities department in 1988 as a part-time clerk in the utility billing office to supplement a part-time job at Johnson's Cafe, which her parents owned at the time.
Johnson came into her current position in 1992 and said it was the opportunity to work with the public and help the City of Seward to provide the best possible customer service that kept her in the position to this year.
“I enjoyed the people that I worked with and I enjoyed working with the public,” she said. “Over the years, the one thing I think the city needs to be most proud of is, we do have good customer service. You're able to just walk in and pay your bill and we're just a phone call away.”
Baumbach said that while her focus on customer service never changed, the position did come with consistent adjustments over the years, particularly from a technology standpoint. She said she's seen meter reading go from manual recording to digital and billing transition to email.
“The city really tries to stay on top of that because it's going at such a fast pace,” she said.
Baumbach said she hasn't quite determined how she'll fill her time in retirement but knows it'll involve the outdoors and some leisure. One definite thing she said that won't change in retirement is her love for the city she's called her home for her entire life and her employer for the past 33 years.
“It's just a good place to raise kids,” she said. “Seward is a growing community and has so much to offer.”
