News editor
New Marion Postmaster Lori Kelsey is happy to be working at a small-town post office again, even though it means getting up to speed on how things work locally while going through the busiest time of the year.
She has worked for the U.S. Postal Service 27 years, including time as postmaster for Geneseo, El Dorado, and Marquette. She joined the Marion office full-time last week after training her replacement for her previous job.
While she was attending college, she took the civil service exam on a whim and got a job at the post office in Leon. It worked so well for her that she turned it into her career.
Kelsey said she enjoys being able to meet and interact with the public, something that is difficult to do at larger post offices.
“I missed the small-town post office,” she said. “It’s a very nice community.”
She said she is still going through the learning curve of finding out where everything is in the office and what the routine is. Every post office is a little bit different, Kelsey said. At smaller offices, workers do a little bit of everything, while at bigger offices, workers are more specialized in their duties. Kelsey likes being a generalist.
The weeks before Christmas are the busiest time of year for the Postal Service, she said, with Monday expected to be the busiest single day of the year. But in the past 10 to 15 years, the volume of mail has decreased so much that post offices don’t have to bring in extra help for the season, Kelsey said.