As an accounts manager for the city utility office, Natalie Holt is frequently one of the first faces new Jacksonville residents see.
Plenty of people will head to the public library for a book, sooner or later, or play a game of pickleball at the community center, but the first stop is almost always to the Water Works, Gas & Sewer Board to set up water and gas service. That’s where new residents meet Holt, where she welcomes them to the city and starts their relationship with Jacksonville.
“You get to become this connecting place for the community, getting to share and communicate face to face,” Holt said. “People would be blown away by how much we learn about customers; their pets’ names, kids’ names, where they’re going in life.”
Holt celebrated her second anniversary with the city in September. She’s a longtime Jacksonville resident, and actually spent most of her work life as an educator — first as a high school English teacher, then coordinating dual enrollment options for high school students at Jacksonville State University, and as an academic advisor at Gadsden State Community College. When the accounts manager position opened up, she decided she was ready for a change of pace.
Now her day-to-day work is customer-service focused, handling service starts and stops, payments and customer issues as they arise. But there are less obvious tasks, she points out, like scanning through usage statistics and looking for odd readings that might indicate water leaks in their infancy.
“I think the most amazing thing to discover about this office is the sheer amount of work that is involved, how many different things we are a part of that the general public doesn’t realize,” Holt said.
When she’s not at work, Holt likes listening to music and going to concerts, writing, painting, photography and any other creative outlet that calls to her. She spent a few years singing as part of an indie duo called Shades of Sally, something that makes her laugh as she reveals it, and her house has a recording studio, thanks in no small part to her husband Noah’s own music background. Along with their two 19 year olds, Gray and Maddie, plus two dogs, two cats and a bird, they’ve got a full band.
The people she works alongside are a lot like family, too, she says.
“This group, these are some of the best people I’ve ever known,” Holt explained. “We laugh all day.”
