MILLERTON— “Neither rain nor snow nor dark of night … ” can keep the Millerton Post Office, captained by Postmaster Lorenso Elleby, from being an efficient hub of communication and a warm gathering place for the community.
Front and center of this hard-working crew is 21-year veteran sales and service associate Lori McGhee, who emanates good cheer while making her way through the well-organized maze of the working area searching for that one piece of mail.
While post offices are sometimes considered to be stressful environments, McGhee’s patience is typical of what makes the group special. On a busy Ides of March afternoon she said of all her customers she enjoys, “making them smile — helping them out when they are oblivious to what they are doing. I wait on the person in front of me — take care of them whether there’s a line or not — one at a time.”
Teamwork helps as demonstrated by Paul Kandetzke, who took the reins at the front counter as they both discussed the importance of the office to the community.
While McGhee doubted this office would be shuttered despite closings occurring in other small town locations, she speculated that if that happened, “I think they would be lost. The townspeople — they meet here. You can hear them out in the lobby.”
Kandetzke, a part of the team for more than two years, enthusiastically agreed that it’s “more like a meeting place out in the lobby every day, especially,” for the people “who’ve basically been locked in by the snow. They come, and they see neighbors they haven’t seen for a while. “
McGhee agreed about the community closeness.
“Because I’ve been here so long, they’re like family to me. I know generations. I joke with about 97 percent of my customers,” she said.
That’s not surprising because the office is a daily stop for most villagers who, with the exception of those on Simons, Highland and Barton Streets, do not have home delivery.
While having no complaints about her job, McGhee suggested patrons “use their correct mailing address. Those that have a PO box need to have that box number on their mail because once this old dog is gone… ”
She chuckled, suggesting an un-labeled envelope among the 1,200 to 1,500 letters that arrive daily for the P.O. boxes might have a long wait to find its way into the proper place in the long bank of boxes behind her, once she retires.
Looking around the space with its multiple shelves, neatly stacked trays and “post-cons,” which are huge racks that come with mail partially sorted, McGhee said she is never bored as there is “always something to be done.”
She and Kandetzke recalled that in addition to letters, packages, fliers and magazines, they have dealt with bees, crickets, mealy worms, worms, hundreds of baby chicks so noisy they are placed on the dock in warm weather or in the lobby in cold — and even a live rooster who came packed in his large special crate with metal mesh over the top.
Not surprisingly, Christmas is the busiest time of year as they process between 400 and 500 packages a day. Despite all those deliveries, on Christmas morning, McGhee said thinks “about the ones that didn’t make it into the post office.”
Starting about two years ago, the post office assumed many more package deliveries; it now performs the task for Fed Ex, UPS and Amazon, whose truck is met at the office and processed by Lexi VanHorn at 4:30 a.m. with the rest of the crew arriving between 7 and 8 a.m.
McGhee, who lives the closet to the Century Boulevard office, relies on her four-wheel drive pickup truck to ensure that “for the most part the office never closes,” even on the snowiest of days.
That spirit of the postal service’s unofficial motto of “neither rain nor snow… ” extends as well to rural carriers Brian Austin and Rick Cleveland, who deliver some 3,000 first class letters plus other mail throughout the rest of the district.
Taking a quick moment from his schedule, Cleveland noted that the weather is the greatest challenge but said, “even if the plows haven’t come through there’s rarely a time when we don’t get through.”
Agreeing that daffodils will be a welcome sight, Cleveland reinforced the office’s positive attitude as he said, “This year has been a little extreme, but you just have to bear with the weather,” smiled and headed back to his truck, marveling at the four Nor’easters to hit the region in March alone.
Dave Jones, owner and chief mechanic at Lakeville Auto. Laurie Fendrich
The board’s job was to find savings — it found a school to close instead