Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE – With colorful balloons and signs decorating his office wishing him well in his retirement, Presque Isle Postmaster Clint Watson bid farewell Friday to his career with the U.S. Postal Service.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell JohnsonPRESQUE ISLE POSTMASTER Clint Watson shared a laugh Friday with Madawaska Postmaster Lisa Nascimbeni on his last day on the job. Watson, who has been the postmaster in the Star City since 1993, retired Oct. 3 after being a government employee for 33 years. Nascimbeni will be the officer in charge in Presque Isle until the postmaster position is filled.
“I’ve been the postmaster since 1993,” said Watson, 61, a native of Cambridge, Maine. “With my time in the military added in, plus sick leave, I’ve been a government employee for 33 years.”
Watson started out with the U.S. Postal Service in 1979 as a part-time clerk in Island Falls. From there, he transferred to Bangor to the mail processing center.
“I was a mail handler, and then became a city letter carrier in Bangor from 1981-1989,” he said. “While I was a city letter carrier, I had the opportunity to work on a detail in the address information systems department. When an opening came up in that department as an analyst, I put in for it and got it. That’s how I transferred to the management side of the Postal Service.”
Watson was later promoted in the same department as an operations support specialist.
“At the time, Bangor and Portland were part of a management sectional center,” he said. “In 1989, they did away with the Bangor center and moved all of the management operations to Portland, so all of us in Bangor lost our jobs.
“I put in for a job as the officer in charge in Bridgewater, and became the postmaster in Mars Hill in 1989,” said Watson. “In November 1992, the postmaster here in Presque Isle was going away for six weeks and I was asked to cover this office until she came back. The day I got here, she found out she was eligible to retire on an early-out program, so the following spring I became the postmaster in Presque Isle.”
Ironically, Watson never thought about a career with the U.S. Postal Service.
“I wanted to be a civil engineer,” he said. “Before I went into the Army, I worked for an uncle who was a civil engineer, but when the economy went bad in the early 70s, I lost that job. I did a lot of odd jobs, including in Massachusetts, and finally decided that’s not where I was going to be able to get ahead. I came back to Maine, and was working at a plywood mill in Patten as a foreman when the place burned down.
“Before it burned down, my father-in-law was a rural carrier in Island Falls, and an opening came up to take the test to get into the Postal Service,” said Watson. “He convinced my wife to take it, and she convinced me to take it with her. Later that year, the position in Island Falls opened up and I was able to get the job. That’s how it all started.”
Over the years, Watson has seen a lot of changes in the Postal Service.
“There’s a lot more automation,” he said, “and the more the automation comes, the fewer number of people you need to work in the office. When I came here, there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 21 people – carriers, clerks and rural carriers combined. We increased – at our peak – at 28 people, and then when automation started coming in, it’s whittled down so now we’re down to 22 again.
“Automation is the biggest change in the Postal Service as far as how we do business,” said Watson. “We still use the same type of system to sort the mail – letter cases and flat cases – that Ben Franklin invented when he started the Postal Service.”
Another change, Watson said, is the increase in postage.
“When I first started here it cost 29 cents to mail a letter,” he said. “Now it’s up to 42 cents.”
In addition to chipping away at his honey-do list, Watson hopes to spend his retirement years doing some carpentry work around the house.
“My wife, Pamela, and I want to work together on doing a lot of things around home that are going to take time,” he said. “I like doing carpentry work, so as much of the work I’m going to do myself to help keep the costs down.
“We also want to visit our relatives who are all over the country,” said Watson, noting he will continue to be involved in the Presque Isle Rotary Club. “One plan that I’m definitely going to do is take my wife to Washington, D.C. We’re going to spend at least two weeks there. I’ve been there quite a few times, but this will be Pamela’s first time, so I want to give her the opportunity to see as much of it as she can.”
Watson said he has thoroughly enjoyed working in the Star City.
“I’ve loved it,” he said. “It’s a great city, and I love the people. While people are sometimes upset with their delivery service, we have people at Christmastime who bring in cookies and whatnot and tell the clerks at the window how happy they are.
“I take a lot of pride in the workers I’ve had here in the office who will do whatever it takes to get the mail to the customers,” said Watson. “They all pride themselves in giving the service that I expect out of them and that’s been instilled in them. We got a piece of mail that came in the other day that says somebody’s name and ‘Presque Isle, Maine.’ We haven’t found them yet, but we’re going to keep on trying until we do. My crew has made my job a lot more enjoyable.”
Watson said he’s also proud of the fact that a number of people who worked under him at the Presque Isle Post Office went on to become postmasters or supervisors in other offices.
“The training and experience they got here was a big help in getting them there,” he said, “and that means a lot to me.”
The Presque Isle Post Office delivers mail to around 3,800 city delivery addresses, 940 rural addresses, and 1,100 post office boxes.
Madawaska Postmaster Lisa Nascimbeni will be the officer in charge in Presque Isle until the postmaster position is filled.
