By Alex Gettys
PS&L president

news@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — As Pickens Savings and Loan approaches the century mark as a community bank, [cointent_lockedcontent]changes are inevitable.

Our bank is different than the other banks in town. We have the normal functions you see in all banks, such as the teller line, drive-in window and loan offices.

However, since we are a full-service bank and Pickens is our only location, we also have an accounting department, an operations department, IT department and an administrative department, all located in our Cedar Rock Street location. We have had key managers retire recently who were very involved in these customer support areas. Fortunately, we were able to promote from within and find our next generation of managers to step up and take leadership roles in our bank.

When Mary Lewis retired two years ago after 35 years of service, we asked Tammy Galbreath to take over our accounting department. Tammy has been employed with PS&L for 11 years and grew up in Pickens. Tammy is married to Frank Galbreath, and they live in Salem. Tammy is the controller of Pickens Savings and Loan.

After Janie Day retired after 30 years of service, Susan Barkley was promoted to vice president and is responsible for deposit services and the administrative functions of our bank. Susan has been employed by PS&L for seven years. Susan grew up in Pickens and is married to Billy Barkley.

Tammy Gillespie has been promoted to vice president and is responsible for our IT department. Tammy has worked in our IT department for five years. Tammy grew up in Pickens and is married to Michael Gillespie.

We try to hire local people and we try to promote from within. It’s important that the leadership of our bank understand our market and the needs of our customers. Our employees have deep roots in this community, as does Pickens Savings and Loan — 95 years strong and counting.

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