Kathy Dibble exists in an odd space, providing both an essential service and – for better or worse – a biweekly reminder of one’s economic situation.

“I’m payroll,” Dibble said with a smile and a shrug. “Everybody loves me. Or they get mad at me.”

Dibble’s office in the Sedona-Oak Creek School District administrative building is large and comfortable, organized in a way that should inspire confidence in anyone whose paycheck lies in her hands. A resident of Sedona since 1979, Dibble is also a veteran of education.

“The love of my life was teaching,” she said, recounting a decades-long span of teaching in private schools. “I love children. It was hard to give it up, but 60-plus hour weeks became too much …. I had retired from teaching before realizing I needed more income, and so I started here.”

Despite no longer being in the classroom, holding a position in the district allows Dibble to continue helping children — a task she takes seriously.

Dibble has lived throughout Sedona, but admitted with laughter that she had “never been a Village person.” Situated halfway up Oak Creek Canyon for the last decade and a half, Dibble and her husband rarely make the trip into Sedona on the weekends, preferring to avoid an increasingly busy State Route 89A.

“It’s a beautiful place. I guess we need to share,” Dibble said, adding that when she first arrived Sedona was defined more by its western heritage and less by its gridlock. “Now, tourism doesn’t allow me to get into town in under 45 minutes, as opposed to the seven minutes it used to take.”

To read the full story, see the Friday, Nov. 6, edition of the Sedona Red Rock News.