LaPorte postmaster retires after 34 years of service

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Pam Bolesta, who retired Jan. 1 as LaPorte's postmaster, jokingly blames her husband for her 34-year career with the U.S. Postal Service.

He signed up to take the exam for temporary work during the holiday season, back in 1974, and put her name in at the same time. She worked the holiday gig, and then landed a full-time job with the USPS the next summer.

After starting in the Fort Collins Post Office, Bolesta transferred to Masonville in 1980, working part-time until she was named postmaster there in 1985. She was appointed postmaster of the LaPorte Post Office in 1991.

Bolesta served as president of the Colorado chapter of the National Association of Postmasters from 2003 to 2005. While in that position, she was in charge of hosting the national convention.

In her postal service career, Bolesta has seen the agency go from an all-manual operation to a computerized and automated system. When she started in LaPorte, the post office had manual cash registers and no computers at all. Mail processing was done completely by hand, so mail often wasn't in the boxes until early afternoon.

Now, mail is presorted in Longmont, so it gets to people faster once it arrives in LaPorte. Other big changes include computerized accounting and inventory control. All training and testing are done online.

When Bolesta arrived in LaPorte in 1991, there was one delivery route for about 400 families. LaPorte – to many people's delight – hasn't seen growth like south Fort Collins has, but mail delivery has increased to two routes and about 650 families. In addition, LaPorte has about 1,000 boxholders.

Working at small-town post offices has been rewarding, Bolesta said, because the staff is able to offer a higher level of customer service than is possible at large facilities. The lines are shorter, and employees know many of their customers by name.

Bolesta and her LaPorte staff have also been involved in community events such as the LaPorte Fest, the Purple Heart Stamp unveiling at the local American Legion Hall and helping to start a stamp-collecting club at Irish Elementary.

Bolesta's roots are in California, where her parents operated a small egg production ranch. She attended college at the University of California-Santa Cruz, and then followed her husband to Fort Collins in 1974, where they both studied at Colorado State University.

The new retiree isn't too concerned about keeping busy without the daily work routine. Like many retirees these days, she plans to reinvent herself and has plenty of ideas already.

Bolesta will enjoy time with her 7-month-old granddaughter in Denver, and she also wants to do some road trips with her father who lives in Loveland. She plans to spend more time on her many hobbies that include horseback riding, arts and crafts and climbing Colorado's 14'ers. She and her sister started the latter hobby three years ago by climbing the state's highest peak, Mt. Elbert.

She also enjoys skiing and snowshoeing, as well as fishing and camping with her husband, Joe. Until now, she has crammed all these interests into weekends and evenings.

"I'm hoping the pace will slow down a little," she said.

In recent years, Bolesta has been part of an organization that's continually downsizing. Both computerization and automation have led to a smaller workforce. More recent financial challenges, Bolesta pointed out, have come from the economic slowdown and a decrease in the volume of first-class mail, since many people now communicate and pay their bills via the Internet. The postal service is also impacted by fuel prices, which were very high in 2008.

As a result of the ongoing financial squeeze, the USPS has offered early-retirement incentives since 1991 to postal workers – aside from management – who meet certain criteria. Many jobs have been cut through attrition as people have retired or moved to other jobs.

Bolesta said she thinks it's "probably inevitable" that the USPS will change to a five-day delivery week to save money. Such a schedule would put a burden on the mail carriers, but she thinks it could be workable if the agency can even out the weekly volume from bulk mailers.

It will take three months or more for the USPS to fill the LaPorte vacancy, Bolesta said. In the meantime, Bellvue Postmaster Patti Halderman is in charge of the LaPorte facility.