First Class Delivery: New Postmaster Installed at Twain Harte Post Office
Twain Harte’s new postmaster, Julie Bader, is a welcomed addition to the Twain Harte Post Office.
By Thomas Atkins
Photos by Greg Kristapovich
After years of working at various post offices in Northern California, Julie Bader has returned to her Tuolumne County roots and has taken up the position as postmaster at the Twain Harte Post Office.
“I am originally from the area and went to Curtis Creek Elementary and Summerville High, so I am basically returning home,” said Julie, who was officially installed as the town’s postmaster last Thursday, December 4th in front of a gathering of about thirty people. In attendance were her husband, Ron and her son, Deke (her family also includes two stepchildren Lauren and Thomas), her parents, Steve and Linda Ladd, and her great aunt and uncle Natalie and Arnold as well as members of the local Soroptomist’s and Rotary and several of Julie’s co-postmasters from the area.
“The position of a postmaster is so important that we ask them to take an oath prior to being installed as postmaster,” said Oakdale postmaster Jennifer Gowans during the installation.
To administer the oath was Bobbi Riley, Manager of Post Office Operations. After the oath Julie became the fourth postmaster of Twain Harte, the first female.
“A postmaster – not postmistress – refers to the head of an individual post office,” said Jennifer. “It’s a unique position because there’s only one postmaster for each individual city or town. In the United States, women have served as postmasters since the Revolutionary War, even earlier under the British rule, and postmasters, regardless of the person’s sex have always been the official title for this position.”
Manager of Post Office Operations, Bobbi Riley, administers the postmaster’s oath to Julie during her installation on December 4th.
Julie, who graduated from Summerville High in 1989, has spent the last six years working at post offices in Escalon, Angels Camp, Mariposa, Oakdale and Riverbank preparing for a position like this.
“In August of 2002 I started as a temporary rural carrier in Escalon and then in 2004 I became a regular rural carrier where I was working every day,” said Julie. “During that time I was working in the office as what they call a 204B, which is someone learning finance and delivery and helping out in the office. In the smaller offices that don’t have supervisors you have a 204B, which is basically a supervisor.”
But once she was capable of handling various postal duties, she found herself being transferred from post office to post office.
“I then went to Mariposa as an Officer in Charge (OIC), which means that their postmaster is gone,” she explained. “So I covered for him for three months and got a little taste of what it’s like to be a postmaster and then I went back to Escalon. I would always be going back to Escalon as a rural carrier. Then I was in Angels Camp and Riverbank. In Riverbank I was there for almost a year as an acting supervisor (a 204B). Then in June of 2007 I was accepted into the Associate Supervisor Management Program and took a 16 week class in Sacramento and graduated in October as a supervisor. So between 2007 and 2008 I was a supervisor in Oakdale and then I applied for this job…and became postmaster.”
Prior to Julie’s installation as postmaster, an Officer in Charge filled in at the post office until everything was situated to where they could post a postmaster position again.
“Twain Harte didn’t have an official postmaster for over a year,” said Julie, who started at the Twain Harte Post Office on September 30th. “So I am glad I was able to fill in that position. I am getting to know a lot of the community. I am finding that the post office is a large part of this community and I am honored to serve as their postmaster. I look forward to working with the employees and giving our customers the quality of service that they deserve.”
With the holiday season in full swing, things are especially busy at the Twain Harte Post Office, which on average delivers about 5,800 pieces of mail to about 2,850 stops each day. By the end of the year this amount adds a very small fraction to the estimated 212 billion pieces of mail delivered to more than 300 million people at 148 million homes, businesses and post office box’s that the U.S. Postal Service delivers in the United States each year!
“Things have been busy at the office,” said Julie during a brief phone interview. “It’s the beginning of the mailing season. But everything is going well. It is a smaller post office than the others I have worked at, but it is similar to Escalon. The only difference is we don’t have city carriers. There were four city routes in Escalon. But it still has rural carriers and a highway contract route which I dealt with in when I was in Mariposa. Mariposa had 11 highway contract routes, andTwain Harte only has three small routes.”
Typically, the duties of postmaster include the enforcement of the organization’s rules and procedures, including everything from knowledge of finance and delivery of mail, to making sure the lobby is clean everyday. Julie also oversees three employees and box’s mail.
“Everything will still operate the same,” she said. “The mail delivery people will still be the same. We are constantly working on mis-deliveries and the same old issues. I am coming in from a larger office and making sure everything is in place in the smaller office, and I found that there were a few things I had to put into place that were overlooked – but everything is running fine at the office.”
Although Julie is in control of the office, she is looking forward to things settling back into a routine on the home front.
“I am currently living in the area, but my husband is still bouncing back and forth because we have a house in Escalon,” she said. “His business is in walnut trees…so right now, until our son is out of school at the end of May, he is staying down there during the week so our son can finish his sixth grade year of school. We already visited Twain Harte Elementary during Thanksgiving and he’s excited about it! It’s been a week and a half since I’ve been home this time and it is getting difficult, but once he is out of school they will move up here and my husband will commute down to take care of the trees. We will just reverse roles.”
However, the Twain Harte community is doing its best to make Julie feel more at home.
“The Soroptomists are already telling me about meetings and I went to the Christmas parade on Friday and the community dinner on Saturday,” she said. “Everyone is really friendly and I am excited to be a part of the community – that is why we moved up here.”
Julie will also be closer to some of her favorite leisure activities such as sailing at Pinecrest and skiing at Dodge Ridge.
“I taught my husband and son how to ski a couple years ago so they enjoy doing that,” she said. “Now I am a lot closer to those activities.”
From what it sounds like, Twain Harte is one of the best places to be a postmaster.
“It is such a close-knit community,” said Julie. “When I’m boxing mail on the backside of the P.O. boxes and listen to the people come in, everyone says hi to each other. It’s amazing. I’ve been in a large office boxing mail and people won’t acknowledge anybody. It’s sad. Down there its like people are afraid to talk to each other and here they walk in and say hi even if they don’t know you. It’s a really nice feeling – a comfortable feeling.”
