Scott Swanson
Carrie Wilson may be new to Sweet Home’s Post Office, but she brings plenty of experience in this territory.
Wilson, 31, is the new postmaster in Sweet Home, replacing Ralph Peterson, who retired earlier this year.
This is her fourth official postmaster position — her most recent was in Philomath — and she’s served in dozens of officer in charge assignments, filling in for absent postmasters and other managers.
“I’ve worked at, honestly, just about every Post Office in the valley,” said Wilson, who started as a clerk in Bend in 2001.
She grew up in Lebanon, graduating from Lebanon High School in 1998.
She was raised with a close affiliation with the U.S. Postal Service, she said – her mother, JoAnne Rogers, is postmaster at Brownsville.
Wilson, who lives in Lebanon, said that she is single and is “very close” with her family, especially her mother. She said she also enjoys horses and ATV riding.
The Post Office has been one of her major focuses in life, she said, and she travels extensively in connection with her job, working in labor relations and particularly as a member of the executive board for the National Association of Postmasters, for which she will serve as Oregon state president next year. She makes annual trips to Washington, D.C. and later this month will attend the organization’s national convention, which is being held in Puerto Rico.
“I really try to stay involved,” she said. “I want to know what’s going on in the Postal Service.”
Wilson brings not only experience, but understanding of the difficulties and changes the USPS has been going through as she takes over the helm in Sweet Home.
As has been widely reported, the Postal Service is considering dropping Saturday deliveries as its volume of first-class mail has shrunk almost 80 percent in the face of competition from the Internet, e-mail and other delivery services such as United Parcel Service and Federal Express.
“First-class mail continues to decline and it’s bulk business and package mail that keeps us afloat,” Wilson said.
She said that in Sweet Home, one carrier route is being eliminated and other routes will be reorganized to take up the extra addresses.
The workforce has been reduced nationwide through attrition — mostly retirements — so the Post Office probably won’t have layoffs.
“We still have jobs — well-paying jobs,” Wilson said. “The Post Office is going through a lot of changes right now. It’s a very challenging time. It’s not easy and there’s more to come.”