Bringing in the post
Lehrkamp has worked at Vincent post office for nearly 30 yearsBy SANDY MICKELSON Messenger staff writer
Article Photos
VINCENT - The door of the small post office opens, and Judy Lehrkamp glances up from her desk. She seems to know without asking whether to go to the counter, smile and wave, maybe say a word or two, or to continue working and let the newcomer alone in her thoughts.
Lehrkamp has close to 30 years in the Newark Township post office - 20 years in postmaster relief and going on eight years as the postmaster.
She and her husband, Dennis - everybody calls him Butch - moved to Vincent from Coalville in 1975 because they wanted to buy a house and the house they liked was in Vincent.
She did a few other jobs, like cleaning, before agreeing to be postmaster relief for postmaster Dorothy Moenck. She worked Saturdays and whenever Moenck was gone. For Lehrkamp, it was the perfect job.
''Oh, I love the people,'' she said. ''The people are great. I meet people who are new in town, too. I probably wouldn't know everybody otherwise.''
Now, for the soft-spoken postmaster, Vincent is a lot like the Cheers bar of television fame - where everybody knows her name and she knows everybody's name. And there's always something to talk about when selling a book of stamps or noticing stacks of birthday cards going into a box.
''I don't think this is as tough as it would be in a larger post office,'' she said. ''But there are challenges. We've had a lot of changes in the last few years through the post office. Things change every year. There's a lot of paperwork to do.''
One important change, she said, is the postal patron's ability to go online to USPS.com to look up zip codes, calculate postage, design a greeting card and pay postage online. There's even click-and-ship availability, with the ability to print labels and pay postage through the use of a credit card. All this has made her job a little easier.
Still, there's always something to do in a one-woman post office.
''You do your own cleaning,'' Lehrkamp said. ''In a small post office, you take care of everything.'' Even washing windows.
Vincent is what's called an intermediate post office. The rural carrier out of Eagle Grove delivers part of his route on the way to Vincent, then delivers the Vincent rural route before finishing the Eagle Grove route.
''It's been that way as long as I've been here,'' she said. ''It doesn't matter that it's two different counties.''
Eagle Grove is in Wright County, while Vincent is in the northeast township of Webster County. Students in Vincent and the surrounding area go to Eagle Grove to school.
The Lehrkamps raised three children in Vincent, and all graduated from Eagle Grove High School. They're all in the military now, stationed in Florida, Georgia and New Jersey. The couple has five grandchildren.
''This is a nice community,'' she said. ''There are a lot of new families with children. The Council finds things for the children to do.''
Such as a pool party for Vincent residents at the Eagle Grove Aquatic Center, where only people from Vincent and their guests could swim. A first party was such a success, another was held recently.
Because Vincent is a close community, Lehrkamp said she wasn't the only person to miss seeing Francis Laurent ride his lawn mower up to the post office to get his mail. Or see Marold Miller stroll up. Both men are gone now, the passing of a bit of city history.
Rowena Bastian has lived in Vincent for 38 years, and while she admits she misses the farm, she does enjoy a daily stop at the post office and small talk with Lehrkamp. When Bastian celebrated her birthday recently, the added stacks of cards in her mailbox gave the women even more to talk about.
''People visit,'' Lehrkamp said. ''Sometimes you learn things you didn't know. It's a good place.''
Contact Sandy Mickelson at (515) 573-2141 or smickelson@messengernews.net
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08-18-08 6:57 PM
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This newspaper is so communist.......24 legit comments now "deleted" nice real nice. I will begin a website cross posting all comments to show just how communist the paper is. What happened to free speech?
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scarum
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08-18-08 5:53 AM
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There is something about a small town post office that the city definetly doesn't have. I enjoy mt trip to the Burnside P.O. so much that when I moved I kept my mail going there, just so I could stop and chat.
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