POWNAL – After a long career with the U.S. Postal Service, Pownal Postmaster Jean Seeley has decided to call it a career.

Seeley, who has been running the Pownal post office since February 1987, retired on Friday, ending a career that started in January 1976 and brought her to offices throughout the area, including Cumberland and Auburn. No permanent replacement has been named for Seeley, the Postal Service has placed Della Pesce, who has filled in for Seeley in the past, as the officer in charge of the Pownal post office until a replacement can be named.

Seeley had a simple reason for coming to the Pownal post office 25 years ago.

“I just wanted to have a postmastership and we lived in Pownal,” she said from behind the office’s counter, which was decorated with balloons and cupcakes celebrating her retirement last week.

Like her reasoning for taking the Pownal job, the 62-year-old Seeley had a simple reason for retiring.

“The time was right,” she said, adding that she wants to spend more time with her family, which includes three grandchildren and one on the way. Seeley will still keep busy in retirement, however. She has been doing machine embroidery for the past seven years, and she plans on turning that sidelight into a business.

In a small office like Pownal’s, which has just two rural carriers and Seeley, the job of postmaster, the manager of the office, encumbers a wide range of duties.

“In this office, we do everything,” Seeley said. “We sort the mail, we distribute it to the carriers (and we) we wait on the customers at the window, among other things.”

Through the years, the postal service has seen a number of changes as email and other forms of communication usurp written letters and so-called “snail mail.” The Pownal post office has been no stranger to those changes during Seeley’s time at the helm.

“We’ve seen a decrease in mail volume,” she said. “People are doing things more online. We’ve seen a decrease in sales, as well.”

While she is looking forward to retirement, there are things that Seeley will miss about being in the post office every day.

“I’m going to miss my employees, because they’re the best,” Seeley said. “And I’m going to miss my customers. This is a small office, so we don’t get the stress that you get in a larger office.”

Val Bell, a rural mail carrier who was worked at the Pownal post office for 15 years, said she is going to miss Seeley, too. Bell said because the office is so small, the staff really tries to work as a team, coordinating schedules when people want to take some time off. “It’s a lot closer in here where it’s so small,” she said. “We really try and work together.”

And it’s not just the employees who are going to miss Seeley.

Todd Andrews, the UPS driver who has been making deliveries to the office for the past 10 years, had kind words for Seeley on her retirement. “She’s been a good postmaster,” Andrews said. “I’m going miss seeing her (every day).”

“They’re just really good people and we’re all doing the same thing, trying to provide service for our customers,” Seeley said regarding Andrews and the other delivery drivers that come into the office on a regular basis.

Seeley won’t be missing people like Andrews and Bell all that much, as both of them said that Seeley lives on their route, and they will still see her on a regular basis.

“I’ll still deliver her mail every day,” Bell said. “She’s not too far away.”

After a long career with the Postal Service, Pownal Postmaster Jean Seeley retired last week. (Staff photo by Mike Higgins)