Teri Perkins has returned to her Postal Service roots: running things at the Foster Post Office,
Perkins has taken over as Foster’s new sales service associate. Sweet Home serves as the administrative office for Foster under Postmaster Wendy Lentz. Perkins succeeds Officer in Charge Ruth Powers, who had resigned. Powers had previously retired as Cascadia postmaster. Lee Eugen, who was also retired and filled in for Powers when she was off, also resigned.
Perkins is working Monday through Saturday, keeping Foster open from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The office is closed for lunch from 11 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
Sweet Home Post Office had two full-time employees in the office but no longer “earned” two full-time employees, Lentz said.
“Foster became my office, which means I can use anybody in my clerk staff here.”
Perkins bid for the job, and Lentz moved her to Foster.
Perkins joined the Postal Service at Foster in 1990. She worked in relief for Postmaster Donna Fincher for six years.
“I lived around the corner,” Perkins said. “I raised my kids there, and they went to Foster (School).”
In 1996, she transferred to Brownsville Post Office as a part-time flex employee. In 1998, she went to work at Sweet Home Post Office as a clerk.
During the 1990s, she filled in at post offices in Lebanon, Sweet Home, Cascadia, Foster and Brownsville.
Returning to Foster, some of the customers are the same, she said.
“I’m absolutely amazed at how many I know and how many remember me.”
She’s finding the same thing with the Cascadia customers, who have been using boxes at Foster since Cascadia Post Office burned down in 2011.
She said she also had three of her Sweet Home customers switch to Foster with her.
It’s a lot less stress, she said, and she likes the Foster customers, “the relationships I have with all my customers.
“I love it. It’s not as chaotic.”