Miller is named as county's new assistant tax administrator

For Rita B. Miller, becoming Alleghany County's assistant tax administrator has not meant a tremendous change in the duties she was already doing in the tax office.

Miller officially assumed her new post Oct. 2, after serving two years as tax appraiser. Mary P. Walker, who had been assistant tax administrator, became the tax administrator in September.

"I enjoy working with the public," she said. "We're pretty small- staffed for everything we have to do. Everybody here has to know every job. We have to be cross-trained to be efficient."

She will still be doing some appraising, along with assuming some of the duties Walker did as assistant. Once the county hires a new tax clerk, that person will take over some of the preparatory paperwork involved with appraising, but Miller will still do the actual measuring. "I'm learning the collections end of it. The appraising side is what I've always done," she said.

The tax office currently has five staff members, she said; once the clerk is hired, it will be fully staffed at six. "Hopefully we'll be advertising (for the position) in the next two or three weeks," she said. Before joining the tax office, Miller was a real estate agent at Scenic Realty and Caldwell Construction. "I did a little bit of everything out there, what was needed," she said.

Born and raised in Sparta, Miller is the daughter of Sally Blevins and the late Gene Blevins, a longtime employee of Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation. Miller's husband, Eric Miller, is employed at Napco. Her son, Dustin DeBord, is 12.

"My son keeps me very busy," said Rita Miller. She enjoys cooking and reading books including mysteries and biographies. She also worked for five years at Sara Lee.

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