The Newport court clerk is retiring a year early because of the ongoing courthouse closure and its uncertain future.
Newport District Clerk Ronda Nelson will retire April 30, after working 42 years for the judicial branch. She started working in 1984, shortly after graduating from high school.
Nelson, 60, decided to retire as the Newport courthouse reaches 13 months of being temporarily closed with no plan for how or when it will reopen. That limbo has left rural Mainers with a longer drive to reach basic court services.
The courthouse at 12 Water St. closed abruptly Jan. 27, 2025, after mold was found in the leased building. But Maine state law mandates a district court in Newport to serve western Penobscot County and without it, people in the area instead have to make an hour-long roundtrip drive to Bangor.
“This move is really what’s made me realize that I don’t want to continue the way we are not knowing how long it’s going to be,” Nelson told the Bangor Daily News.
There is no intention to close the courthouse but moving and reopening is expensive, Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill said last week at her State of the Judiciary address before the House and Senate.
Nelson said she had another year of work in her, but only if she was in Newport, not Bangor. With the prolonged closure she has an extra 30-minute drive each way. She hadn’t been ready to retire until that commute continued with no end in sight.
“It’s wearing,” Nelson said. “It just takes more time out of your day. But I’ve done it. We’ve come here and I’ve made it work.”
The judicial branch does not publicly comment on an employee’s reason for leaving, spokesperson Barbara Cardone said.
“Ronda is and has always been a valued employee, and we are all proud of her history with the Judicial Branch,” Cardone said. “We wish her the best in retirement.”
Nelson had worked at the Newport courthouse since 2001, after stints in Skowhegan and Farmington courts.
“With no plan in sight, no plans as of right now, I decided I’m going to take a one year early retirement and enjoy life with my husband and my grandchildren,” Nelson said.
Moving the court to Bangor went well, even though they only had two days to pack up, but she said she never expected to be displaced at this point in her career.
“We were all hoping it was going to be a quick temporary fix, and it hasn’t turned out to be that way,” Nelson said. “[It’s] time to move on.”
When Nelson started working for the judicial branch after high school, court staff handwrote everything. She worked through the changes to typewriters and the first computer system to where things are now as the state works to bring records online.
“I’ve actually met some pretty incredible people through my journey,” Nelson said.
She described meeting some people as children in the midst of protective custody cases and then seeing them years later in treatment court, doing phenomenal. From litigants to judges, she sees the same people daily or weekly.
“I’m going to miss a lot of the attorneys, a lot of the other clerks,” Nelson said. “You get to meet a lot of people. The judges I’ve worked with I’m certainly going to miss them.”
Adoption days are another great thing, where Nelson said she seeks out the children to make sure they feel important that day.
Working for the judicial branch has been a very rewarding career, she said. It can be stressful, she added, because you never know who is going to approach the clerk window, but you also get to help someone and make them feel like they were heard.
Just because someone has to come to court, it doesn’t mean they’re a bad person, she said. A little kindness goes a long way.
“I think I’ve made an impression on some people and an impact on some people, and that’s what I’m going to go away with,” Nelson said.
