Los Alamos County Chief Information Officer Laura Gonzales shows off her new ‘Apple watch’ that she received today during her retirement party at Fuller Lodge. Someone actually drilled the apple into the wrist band and carved a clock face into the apple for her. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

Laura Gonzales holds the Nambe gift she received from the County at her retirement party today at Fuller Lodge. Photo by Carol A. Clark/ladailypost.com

A crowd comprised of colleagues, family, friends and community members turned out today to bid farewell to retiring Los Alamos County Information Officer Laura Gonzales.

Gonzales began working at the County as IT System manager in charge of servers, networks and data bases April 3, 2000, her last day of work is Friday and her official retirement date is Dec. 31, 2015.

“The County has been an amazing place to work … so many smart and competent people … it’s just a really good environment,” she said. “It’s been a tremendous amount of satisfaction for me to work with the community members and help them with their IT need.”

Prior to working at the County, Gonzales worked in Santa Fe for the State of New Mexico as a management analyst and then in IT.

Gonzales said she is excited to start doing some work with Redi Net, getting involved in other organizations and spending more time with my husband.

“But I am really going to miss working at the County and with the community members,” she said. “I’ve never had a time at the County when I didn’t look forward to going to work.”