A FINANCE DIRECTOR’S FAREWELL

Siler City’s Tina Stroupe leaving post for position in Raleigh

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SILER CITY —Tina Stroupe, who’s been Siler City’s Finance Department Director for the last three years, is leaving for a position at the City of Raleigh.

“I’ll be joining the finance team for the city of Raleigh, and I’m looking forward to that,” she said. “[It] gives me a chance to kind of grow in my career and provide my knowledge so I’m looking forward to that.”

Stroupe came to Siler City from the town of Holly Springs back in 2019, where she was the accounting and financial reporting manager. Stroupe said Siler City seemed like the right next step for her career at the time.

“I had recently, or was right in the end of, getting a finance officer certification,” she said.

As Siler City’s finance director, where she’s been tasked with handling all of the town’s financial reporting, the water collection revenues, grant funding and reporting, assisting in the creation of the annual budget and more.

The finance director position was something Stroupe had prepared for through school and certification programs. What she — as well as town staff in general — never expected was the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on town operations and funding.

“That was probably the most difficult time here at the town … because we didn’t know what was going to happen,” Stroupe said. “That just made it very difficult to keep operations going, but I think we did the absolute best we could and I think we did a good job.”

During the earlier days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stroupe helped to ensure the town’s water billing department followed the moratorium on utility disconnections due to missed payments.

After that moratorium, however, Stroupe said her department continued to try to be more understanding of residents and their situations.

“We [now] do payment agreements, and we’ve adjusted to try to make it easier for people to make sure that they get their utilities or it’s not quite so burdensome,” she said. “So we’ve made some procedural changes just easier on all of our residents.”

Stroupe said one of the best aspects of her job was working and talking to residents of the town. She said that, and her coworkers and staff, have made her look forward to coming into work every day.

“In my previous positions, I didn’t necessarily work with residents one-on-one,” Stroupe said. “I’m going to miss working with the employees here and the residents of the town … It’s been a learning experience.”

Stroupe said working for Siler City helped her to grow not only in her career but as a person. She said she was thankful for the opportunities the town has given her to grow professionally and interpersonally.

“I have felt like I’ve grown in knowledge that I’ve picked up and the things that I’ve learned more as far as the things that I needed to know in my role,” she said. “So it’s definitely been a good experience as far as knowledge, personal growth, and career growth.”

As Stroupe prepared for her departure, she said she hopes Siler City will continue to move toward preparation for the growth coming to western Chatham County, adding that she hopes she’ll be able to look back at Siler City a couple of years from now to see it flourishing with new businesses and residents.

“I know that Siler City is getting ready to go through huge growth, and I hope that it ends up being a good thing for them — I know it’ll be a good thing for them,” Stroupe said. “I just hope that everything they just go smoothly for them and that the residents and the employees kind of reap the rewards of this.”

Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @HeedenTaylor.

Tina Stroupe