Kelly hired as new Greene County clerk
After more than a year working under Greene County’s clerk, Jeremy Kelly now gets to take on the role himself.
The county Board of Commissioners voted 3-0 Thursday to appoint Kelly as chief clerk retroactive to July 19.
Kelly had served as assistant clerk since 2024, where he also handled budget and finance. He replaces longtime clerk Jeff Marshall, who retired to take a job as business manager for the Central Greene School District.
Kelly’s held several posts with the county since 2011, when he started in the county conversation district as the erosion and sanitation control reviewer. The next year, he moved to the planning department.
Kelly became director of planning eight years later, adding budget and finance to his portfolio in 2022.
As clerk, Kelly hopes to maintain the integrity Marshall had in the role, as well as the transparency of county offices.
A lifelong Greene County resident, born and raised in the area, Kelly also runs Greene Valley Swine Co., a family pig farm in Spraggs. He wants to find ways to make Greene County continue to be a place where people want to come and work.
“I want to see it prosper, I want to see it do well,” he said. “And I think we’ve done well as a county. We just need to maintain it and move forward with consistency and hopefully get everything going. … I get very irritated when people say stuff negative about our county, and I think we have a beautiful county. I think there’s a lot of opportunity.”
The commissioners praised Kelly for his work with the county and broad skillset.
“We brought him up as assistant chief clerk, knowing that Jeff would eventually retire, and we needed to get someone with a little bit of knowledge and understanding everything that Jeff handles up there,” board Chairman Jared Edgreen said. “He’s very bright. He’s got the aptitude and understands how it all works. So it was an easy choice.”
Kelly also brings in additional knowledge in planning and economic development to the role, said Commissioner Blair Zimmerman.
“We’ve got to fill some other positions, but he’s doing a lot of extra work at this time,” he said. “He’s a very bright guy. He’ll do fine for us.”
The commissioners are still working on how they want to replace Kelly’s former assistant role, said Vice Chair Betsy McClure.
The board approved a proclamation recognizing Marshall for his service to Greene County during his 33-year career, which included 16 years as clerk. Kelly said he worked closely with Marshall in the transition. He’s been able to reach out to Marshall several times for help, though his ultimate goal is to perform the job independently.
“It’s very easy to follow someone who was clean and concise,” he said.
Kelly’s salary was set at $93,322.74 after the promotion. The board also voted to add Kelly as administrator and signatory for the state Engineering and Construction Management System.
“Until that official action happened, I couldn’t now go to the state and say, ‘Hey, I need access to this stuff,'” Kelly said. “So that was a little bit hard transition, but those things are starting to clean up.”