Happily retired — Page opening new chapter after decades of able service

FARMINGTON — Take a walk down the hallway near the county commissioners' offices at the Davis County Memorial Courthouse. Some of the men in the pictures adorning the walls of that hallway are mustachioed cowboy types. Others are clean-shaven businessmen. Each left his mark on Davis County.

And as sure they were distinct personalities with varying philosophies, they all had one thing in common: They were all men.

Come January, that wall will feature Davis County's first woman commissioner, Carol Page, who retired this year after 13 years in office.

Add to that 12 years on the Kaysville City Council and four years on Kaysville's Planning Commission and you have nearly three decades of public service. And all that for a woman who had never imagined life in public office.

Page says after years of always running to the next meeting, in the closing weeks of 2006, she could leave for the day at about 2 p.m. and knew she wouldn't have to come back to the office.

"It was the weirdest feeling," she said.

As of Jan. 2, she didn't ever have to come back. During that day's regular meeting of the Davis County Board of Commissioners, Louenda Downs took the oath of office for Page's seat, seat B. Bret Millburn took the place of seat A Commissioner Dannie McConkie, who failed in a re-election bid during April's county Republican convention.

The remaining commissioner, Alan Hansen, who will face re-election in 2008, was named chairman of the new commission during a recent meeting.

"I think they're going to be fine," Page said of the new commissioners. "I think they're excited."

To her, it doesn't seem like it was that long ago that she was a new commissioner, having been appointed after Commissioner Gerald Purdy died of a heart attack in 1993.

The commissioners at the time appointed Page to fill Purdy's seat for a year. And from then, Page had a fairly easy time getting elected three times.

But now it's time to pass on that $96,000 paycheck for four more years, the daily e-mails, phone calls and meetings, being on call 24/7, the campaigns, being in the public light and taking heat from someone for almost any decision to spend time as a mother and grandmother — something she hasn't been able to do as much as she wanted since 1975.