INSIDE
Volume 3, Issue 10 August 1, 2025 Total Raised: $62,690 Lead this Legacy
: Voters to determine library millage renewal
REFLECTIONS OF OUR COMMUNITY
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Part 4 EVERYDAY H E R O E S By AnnaMae Bush
PAID
BIG RAPIDS, MI 49307 PERMIT NO 62
PRSRT STANDARD NON PROFIT U.S. POSTAGE
rier or a substitute and how many parcels need to be The Oceana Echo Community Correspondent delivered. Post offices vary in size and services according to Our postal carriers are an essential part of the the population served. An team who work faithfully to Actual Post Office (ACO) bring local news from our is large enough to employ Echo staff to you, and Echo the administrative services Publishing is extremely of a postmaster, while a Remotely Managed Post grateful for their service. Many have probably Office (RMPO) is under the heard some version of the direction of a postmaster in phrase "The mail must go a nearby ACO. Oceana County has through," and though it is not an official motto of the four ACOs which are locatPony Express or the United ed in Pentwater, Hart, ShelStates Postal Service, it is by and Hesperia, and are in still very well known. Con- the smallest size category versely, an inscription on of ACO possible. Each has a the New York City General postmaster, full-time winPost Office reads, "Neither dow service by one or more snow nor rain nor heat clerks and provides delivnor gloom of night stays ery to neighboring comthese couriers from the munities. On the border swift completion of their of Oceana and Newaygo appointed rounds." With a counties, Hesperia delivlong history, this quote is ers in both counties. The from Herodotus, a Greek remaining post offices in historian, referring to the the county are RMPOs and are located in Mears, WalkPersian postal system. Today in Oceana Coun- erville, Rothbury and New ty, few of us receive our mail Era. They offer window serby couriers on foot. Many vices with clerks who may residents collect their mail be full-time or part-time. from a post office box and The Oceana Echo is delivthe post office becomes ered every week to all these a community hub where small and larger post officnews about local residents es in addition to offices in is heard and shared. More Montague. Outside of inclement of us have our mail delivered by a postal worker in weather and poor road a car or truck and the de- conditions, our local postal livery time depends on the workers face challenges beday of the week, whether hind the scenes that loom the driver is the regular car- larger. Recently, Pentwater carriers were instructed not to deliver mail to residents on Chester Street for a few days when the road was being reconstructed after installation of the new water line. Pentwater, Hart and Shelby postal workers shared their particular obstacles to efficient service. Pentwater Postmaster Chris Roberts explained, “Without a doubt, my big-
CELEBRATING OUR LOCAL POSTAL WORKERS gest challenge is staffing. There are many regulations that determine how, when, and how many people I can hire. Employees must always start part-time, there are rules governing substitutes, and it is illegal to use volunteers. The demand for services varies tremendously between summer and winter, but I cannot hire seasonal employees. In the winter we have 525 active post office boxes, and our carriers deliver mail to 1,600 addresses. In the summer we have 700 active post office boxes, and our carriers deliver mail to 3,500 addresses. We have three delivery routes managed by two full-time and one auxiliary carrier. One driver has a route with 800 addresses; it is considered an ‘overburdened route.’” He continued, “Based on our number of customers, we could have seven employees. But we have only four. The size of our trucks is inadequate to handle the quantity of large parcels mailed by Amazon. It is not uncommon for our carriers to make two or three trips to the office daily to restock their trucks with more of the day’s mail. The average number of parcels our carriers deliver is about 435 . But on Saturday, July 5, we had 930 parcels that had to be delivered. It would be very helpful to have larger trucks.” Mail is heaviest on Mondays and around the holidays, but it can also be larger on Fridays and
RESIDENTIAL POSTAL CUSTOMER ECRWSS
Chris Roberts Saturdays. Postal workers in Oceana regularly offer help to one another. Clerks will travel from their own assigned post to work in other offices when illness or other reasons leave a neighboring office window unattended. Roberts is a 21-year veteran of postal work and has training as both a carrier and a clerk. He was appointed as Pentwater's postmaster three years ago. In addition to administrative duties, he works the window, sorts the mail and delivers the mail, particularly parcels, to complete carrier routes. He reports that the carriers often work long days, well past the supper hour, and have occasionally delivered parcels on Sundays to manage the workload. Regarding The Oceana Echo, Roberts reports, “Everybody loves the Echo. If they don’t receive it on Friday, or don’t see it on the counter, they ask for it. They especially fly out of here in the summer, when we have run out of them a few times.” What Roberts wanted to emphatically communicate to all Pentwater postal customers was, “Our carriers do care – they REALLY do. They bend over backwards, even working on their days off, to get mail delivered to their
customers.” They truly are everyday heroes. Larry Rasmussen has worked at the Hart post office for 31 years, serving as a carrier on city and rural routes and as a clerk. “The Hart post office administers mail service for the communities of Hart, Mears and Walkerville. The Hart facility has 400 boxes for Hart and 150 boxes for Mears and sends mail for another 100 boxes to the Walkerville office," Rasmussen explained. "There is a total of 10 carrier routes for the three communities and close to 4,000 delivery addresses on those routes.” When asked about current challenges, he didn’t have to think twice before replying, “Our biggest challenge is Amazon. Their parcels have expanded our workload tremendously.” Gone are the days when postal carriers managed their load of envelope deliveries in a bag they shouldered until it was empty. When something was too big for a resident’s mailbox or mail slot, they got a note instructing them where they could go to pick it up. Today the carriers deliver to a resident’s door whatever will not fit in their mailbox. Administering the services in Hart is their Postmaster Chad Barnaby, who has been there for four
years. Shelby’s post office recently welcomed new Postmaster Candice Giddings, who moved there from a post in Muskegon. Roxanne Van Laan has been a postal worker in Shelby for over 25 years and is a few months from retirement. She recently recounted their biggest challenges as issues with their phone service and Amazon. “Our back door for deliveries is too small to allow the large Amazon shipping crates to fit through it. Each crate needs to be broken down to bring the parcels into the office...It’s a lot of work and we have had as many as 12 crates of parcels crowding our space at one time. Our building is old and too small for handling the work. The mail for Rothbury and New Era as well as for Shelby comes through this space.” The idiom “Walk a mile in someone’s shoes” suggests that empathy and understanding grow when one sees or experiences what another person faces. Spending an hour with a postal worker, whether walking or driving or sitting with a window clerk, is an eyeopener to the challenges they face and gives one an appreciation for the “everyday heroes” that they are.
Last chance to share your Oceana County Fair memories! Last chance! The Oceana County Fair will soon be here, and with it comes the Oceana Echo’s 3rd Annual Fair Special Section. As in the past, we are inviting our readers to contribute their personal memories of the Oceana County Fair. Whether it is a favorite food, a favorite ride or a favorite event - tell us about it! Perhaps you made special memories with a special someone. Maybe you are old enough to remember “back in the old days." All memories are welcomed and appreciated. Please email sharon@oceanaecho.com by Monday, August 4, 2025 to be included this year!
EVENINGS WITH THE ECHO HART PHOTO CONTEST WINNER
Clair Purdy
• AnnaMae Bush/Echo