Deputy Director of Development Janet Pearson Retires after 18 1/2 Years Share

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Long­time City of Mar­i­on Deputy Direc­tor of Devel­op­ment, Janet Pear­son, retired this month after 18 ½ years of service.

Since 2010, Pear­son man­aged the City Prop­er­ty Pro­gram. About 900 parcels orig­i­nal­ly deed­ed to the City when no bids were received fol­low­ing the Grant Coun­ty Tax Sale have suc­cess­ful­ly dwin­dled down to about 200, putting all sold prop­er­ties back on the tax rolls. Pear­son explained, ​“We had got­ten those prop­er­ties into the hands of folks who would main­tain them while build­ing up the tax rolls, so it has been a ​‘win-win’ for everybody.”

The City was also able to achieve fund­ing to fur­ther its blight elim­i­na­tion program.

Pear­son served on the Mar­i­on Rede­vel­op­ment Com­mis­sion and the Com­mu­ni­ty Revi­tal­iza­tion Enhance­ment Dis­trict (CReED) Board dur­ing her career. She also served as a ded­i­cat­ed ambas­sador for the Mar­i­on-Grant Coun­ty Cham­ber of Com­merce, now Greater Grant County.

In retire­ment, Pear­son shared her desire to vol­un­teer in some way in the future, but in the mean­time, she is hap­py to be free of a schedule.

Pear­son had served in var­i­ous roles that brought her to a lengthy career with the City, hav­ing worked in sales, bank­ing, and for a title com­pa­ny. ​“All of the pre­vi­ous careers I’ve had helped me to devel­op the nec­es­sary skills to work for the City. All of them includ­ing my munic­i­pal work have all been great expe­ri­ences in work­ing with the com­mu­ni­ty. From cit­i­zens to busi­ness­es, I’ve had the priv­i­lege of serv­ing both. 

Pear­son offi­cial­ly retired on Jan­u­ary 5^th, 2024.

She expressed, ​“I will miss my cowork­ers, that’s for sure. And I’ll miss the busi­ness relationships.”