"Postal employee cutbacks shouldn't affect service" and "Popular post employees enter retirement together" from the 1972 Door County Advocate
By Linda Adams and Frank Tachovsky
[from December 21, 1972]
Postal employee cutbacks shouldn't affect service
By LINDA ADAMS
Will the cut in postal workers during the 1972 job freeze cause inefficient handling of Christmas mail this year? It looks as though the Sturgeon Bay post office will avoid any inconvenience or delays.
This Christmas season the Sturgeon Bay office will handle over 306,000 pieces of mail from Dec. 1 through 23. Approximately 30,000 pieces per day pass through the post office. This is about three times the regular mail load. According. to Postmaster Tachovsky the total is up about three percent from last year.
Dec. 10-16 is the mail peak both locally and nationally. Annually the post office is able to handle over 3,000,000 pieces of mail plus parcel post.
The post office now has three experienced postal clerks on annual leave prior to retirement so the post office has been forced to operate with 23 regular staff instead of the usual 26. Fortunately, however, the Sturgeon Bay post office has been able to borrow three clerks from the county postal pool. This accounts for the female infiltration of the otherwise male postal clerk staff.
There is no automation at the Sturgeon Bay post office so the estimated mail flow is determined by the number of canceled pieces and the metered postage machines used by businesses around town. A large percentage of mail that is canceled but not sorted goes by bulk load to the Sectional Center Facility (SCF) or the area mail processing (AMP) center in Green Bay.
The Green Bay SCF gets all the daily mail left over from the 100 area post offices. "Because of this new type of processing there has been very little overtime in the clerk craft or delivery routes thus far this season," Tachovsky says. "This new mechanization procedure means that all mail is cleared out daily despite the reductions in complement and work hours."
According to Tachovsky all preferential mail, that is, first and second class, is handled at Sturgeon Bay daily. The only delay is the third class mail and that is expected to be cleaned out by Dec. 23, Tachovsky said.
Because such a quantity of mail is sent on to be processed it is necessary for people to take special care in addressing their local mail. Tachovsky stresses the fact all mail should have the full address and zip code whether mailed to a local address or a distant one.
It is also important that letters mailed at the post office be put in the correct boxes designated for local and out of town mail. When a box is posted as local it pertains only to the city of Sturgeon Bay and its six rural routes. Other Door county mailing addresses are not considered local but out of town mail. This is true for the rest of the year also because of the area mail processing.
"Door county mail other than Sturgeon Bay mail is often sent through AMP to centralize mail for speeding up the process through mechanization, in order to reduce cost," Tachovsky said.
"The Sturgeon Bay post office is budget conscious and is trying to operate economically," Tachovsky explains as the reason for these procedures.
Because of the national postal job freeze, when the three employees retire from the Sturgeon Bay post office Jan. 1 they will not be replaced. Tachovsky explained the effect of the job freeze as "the continued reduction of postal staff through attrition."
The Sturgeon Bay post office complement of postal workers will be reduced this year from 26 to 23. The U.S. Postal Service has been encouraging the retirement of those clerks who are eligible. Eligibility of 30 years at age 55 is the earliest retirement under the Civil Service Program, which still applies to the U. S. Postal Service. Retirees will receive an annual annuity: based on their highest three year income.
The most obvious effect of the postal freeze is the delay in the increase of postage rates. Due to efficiency in national reorganization of the postal department the $450 million postage rate increase that had been forecast for January 1973 is not necessary at present. In other words we will not have to purchase nine cent stamps for awhile.
[from December 28, 1972]
What these fellows don't know about postal operations you'd be hard pressed to find in the Manual. Seated from left are Darrel Starr, Leon May and Lee Birmingham, all of whom retired Dec. 22. Arden Robertson, standing, will be next. —Advocate
Popular post employees enter retirement together
By FRANK TACHOVSKY
Leon May, Darrel Starr, and Lee Birmingham, with a combined total of over 98 years in the postal service, have voluntarily retired effective Dec. 22, 1972. While the postal service during the past year offered incentives for early retirement, all have served the standard civil service requirement of 30 years of service and are over 55 years old.
May served the longest, over 35 years. All three had their postal service interrupted to serve in the Armed Forces during World War II.
Starr and May served in the Army. Lee enlisted at the same time as Darrel and hoped to serve in the same branch of service. However, he was further back in the line and when it came to his turn the Army quota was filled and he joined the Navy. It turned out well for Lee as he served in the Fleet Postoffice, acquiring more postal experience.
Leon entered the postal service in 1937 as a substitute clerk-carrier. After returning from the service he continued working inside the postoffice until 1951 when he replaced the then retiree Louis Solomon on Route 1.
In 1961 he went to Route 2 when Al Niemann retired. Rural carriers provide full postal services to their customers on their route, in effect operate a small mobile postoffice.
Many rural carriers develop an excellent rapport with their rural customers as evidenced by two periods of the year, at Christmas when they frequently are recipients of presents and during the growing season when they may pull up at a rural mailbox to find a bunch of carrots or a bag of tomatoes waiting there for them.
Darrel Starr entered the postal service in 1941 as a clerk. At that time, Harry Jones was the postmaster and Sawyer, on the west side, was still an independent postoffice. Darrel served inside the Sturgeon Bay postoffice with such great old-timers as Walter Stephan and Buck Arle who at that time were approaching their retirement.
Darrel could and did perform in every capacity inside the postal facility. He frequently served at higher level status as clerk-in-charge. He was a producer who knew what needed to be done and did just that. Darrel received the Superior Accomplishment Award in 1969, one he long deserved. Darrel was also responsible for the stamp vending machine being operational for such a long period of time.
Lee Birmingham entered the postal service in May of 1942. At that time his dad, Avery, was in the postal service as a rural carrier on Route 3. Between the time that Darrel and Lee entered the service Jack Weitermann had been appointed postmaster.
Lee served in a variety of capacities until he became the window clerk at the Sturgeon Bay postoffice. Lee was an extremely popular window clerk, a position now known as a Retail Sales Clerk.
Lee was exceptionally knowledgeable with postal rates and postal information and took very good care of stamp collectors. He received the Superior Accomplishment Award in 1966 and, most recently was awarded the Pride in Excellence Award, an award specifically for retail sales clerks. He was the first to receive the award in the Green Bay-Iron Mountain Sectional Center Facility.
These retirees were exceptional employees, efficient, competent and well deserving of their retirement. They have seen a number of transitions in the postal service, from primarily rail transportation of mail, to primarily van and air transportation. During these changes these employees have rendered exceptional service and, quite interestingly, their retirement is rather timely as it comes on the verge of the postal service's greatest transition from operations to mechanization and automation.
The Sturgeon Bay postoffice is scheduled for area processing in the near future. Under AMP, originating non-local mail operations will be transferred to the SCF. In addition, local offices will be relieved of daily recordkeeping and accounting which will be centralized at the SCF's.
Other articles by Linda Adams:
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