Multilingual clerks on hand to help people at Linn County Treasurer’s Office

CEDAR RAPIDS — Three multilingual employees of the Linn County Treasurer’s Office are helping immigrant community members by providing services in English and three other languages.

Melisa Knuteson-Troche, 29, Marie Chahine, 49, and Gaby Garcia, 42, all speak English fluently as a second language — or, in Chahine’s case, as a third language.

Garcia, originally from Guatemala, and Knuteson-Troche, originally from Mexico, both speak English and Spanish.

Chahine, originally from Lebanon, speaks English, French and Arabic.

The three women are all U.S. citizens and live in Cedar Rapids. As clerks in the treasurer’s office, their ability to speak other languages comes in handy when helping people whose first language is not English.

“It makes it much easier for them because I’ve been in their shoes when I first came here and I didn’t know the language,” Chahine said. “It’s so overwhelming.

“It gives them more security, that things are getting done and that someone is looking out for them and helping them through it … when they see there’s someone ... explaining and giving them advice about what they need to get done in their own language.”

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Chahine learned both Arabic and French in school. Nowadays, the schools in Lebanon usually teach English as well — she has family members in school there now, learning all three languages — but when Chahine moved to Iowa in 1998, she didn’t speak any English.

She said figuring out legal things, like the vehicle titles handled by the treasurer’s office, was difficult when she was in English as a Second Language classes at Kirkwood Community College.

Now, Chahine said, she has the opportunity to help others who are going through that same experience.

“It’s a great feeling when you know that you supported someone that's struggling and trying to build a life and start somewhere new,” she said.

Spanish speakers

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Knuteson-Troche and Garcia had similar experiences when moving to Iowa from Spanish-speaking countries and learning English.

Knuteson-Troche moved to Cedar Rapids from Mexico City 14 years ago, and Garcia moved here from Guatemala City 18 years ago. They both started working as clerks at the treasurer’s office about five months ago.

“I have worked in customer service for 14 years, since I was 14,” Knuteson-Troche said. “I like the environment. I like the people. I like to keep my mind busy, and I’m always looking for something to do.”

Knuteson-Troche said she enjoys speaking Spanish at work and at home and tries to speak it regularly with her kids so they, too, will be bilingual.

Before taking the treasurer’s office job, she worked in the restaurant industry, usually in Mexican restaurants where the language was a major part of the job.

“I enjoy just talking to customers, even if it’s not in Spanish, but I’m always glad to be able to help other people,” she said.

Garcia previously worked for Whirlpool in Amana, where she said her ability to speak Spanish was used regularly.

In that job and at her new position with the treasurer’s office, she said she’s seen an increase in the last few years in the number of Spanish speakers she serves.

It can be a relief for people when someone can speak to them in their native language.

“They feel like they belong,” Garcia said. “They feel like they are not alone. I say this from my perspective also, as a customer. “When you meet with somebody that speaks your own language, you're like, ‘Oh, finally, somebody that can understand a little bit of how I feel when I cannot speak it.’ ”

‘A real godsend’

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Linn County Treasurer Brent Oleson, a former county supervisor, said he’s made it a point to interview multilingual speakers when hiring clerks in the past couple of years, noting he’s posted job openings on social-media sites used by Latin American communities in Cedar Rapids.

“It’s been a real godsend,” Oleson said. “We had a Spanish speaker when I arrived at the office, and she left for a different job. I knew it was important before, but then it became really clear.”

In 2024, about 5 percent of the 136,000 people living in Cedar Rapids identified as Hispanic.

The office’s three multilingual clerks, Oleson said, “are just a phenomenal asset to the office. The citizens of Linn County should be happy that we have that service.”

Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com