Clark County Press, Neillsville, WI

September 30, 2009, Page 2

Transcribed by Dolores Mohr Kenyon

Rask swears in Schilling as Neillsville Postmaster

Mark Rask (right) manager of post office operations for the 544/545 service area, swears in Neillsville Postmaster Lisa Rae Schilling (left) while Schilling’s husband, Jason, holds the Bible Tuesday, Sept. 22, at the Neillsville Post Office.  (Photo by Peter Spicer/Clark County Press)

By Peter Spicer

Mark Rask, manager of post office operations for the 544/545 service area, was on hand at the Neillsville Post Office Tuesday, Sept. 22, to swear in Postmaster Lisa Rae Schilling.

Schilling addressed co-workers, family and others in attendance, including Neillsville Mayor Diane Murphy, at the ceremony Tuesday morning.

Schilling recognized the community, co-workers and her family and added she hopes to work in Neillsville a long time.

Although the U. S. Postal Service is going through a difficult financial time, Rask stated he appreciates Schilling’s efforts at the Neillsville Post Office and her communication with the community.

Rask also praised area postal employees, including Neillsville postal employees, calling them some of the nation’s best.  Area post offices are able to provide some of the best service in the nation because of its employees, he added.

Although Rask has worked at other post offices throughout the country, he feels area postal workers are the most dedicated he’s ever worked with.

Despite the great efforts of area postal employees, Rask stated he’s never seen a financial crisis in the post office such as this in 30 years.

The postal service faces $13.5 billion in long-term debt by the end of the fiscal year, said Rask, who over-sees 114 post offices, which include 1,200 employees.

The 1,200 current postal employee total is down from 1,250 employees three years ago.  However, that number was reduced through employees leaving and retiring and not from, laying off employees, said Rask.

The poor economy has resulted in less mail coming into post offices, said Rask, who added the postal service is discussing five-day delivery instead of the current six-day delivery.

Even if the economy improves soon, it will take the postal service two years to catch up, Rask explained.

However, Rask credits postal customers for continuing to use post offices.

“We’ve got a lot of good products, a lot of good service,” said Rask.