Idyllwild postmaster resigns
Idyllwild Postmaster Mark Smith has resigned after holding the position for about four months.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service
According to remaining Idyllwild post office staff, Smith left a resignation note on a back-room table at the end of a shift early last week and has not returned.
Employees Christine Reitz and Kelsi Lehman did their best to staff the busy Idyllwild office themselves during the remainder of the week. Idyllwild Post Office has 3,600 actual mailboxes of various sizes, of which 2,700 are in use.
The Town Crier contacted the United States Postal Service central office in Redlands to inquire as to its intentions regarding supplanting the Idyllwild Post Office staff, but we could not get past its extensive automated answering system.
However, Idyllwild Post Office staff indicated that they do not expect staffing help from the central office since all post offices, including the central office itself, are in need of more workers at this holiday time. Reitz and Lehman indicated they are not permitted to accept volunteer help from the general public.
Neither Reitz, employed at the Idyllwild location for 18 years, nor Lehman, employed here for 13 years, has yet informed the Town Crier of interest in the postmaster position.
Smith replaced Ray Wilson, who retired June 1 after 37 years with the Postal Service. Wilson stepped into the postmaster position Sept. 29, 2019. Wilson told the newspaper during an interview that he planned on being the postmaster for three years before he retired.
The Town Crier will follow up on this story.
