Postmaster says farewell, ‘Thank you, Sartell!’

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

After serving 30 years for the U.S. Postal Service – 18 of them in Sartell – Postmaster Terry Niehaus is sending a big retirement “thank you” to Sartell residents who were her loyal customers. Her last day is Sept. 30.

“I’ve enjoyed my postal career and I’m glad I served in Sartell,” she said. “I met so many people and got to know them. We became very close through daily interactions.”

For three years in a row, the Sartell Post Office sold the most “breast-cancer” stamps of all post offices in the region, which helped support the fight against that disease.

“We promoted those stamps and the people of Sartell bought them,” Niehaus aid. “The people here really got behind that cause.”

She said she will never forgot how kind, caring and thoughtful Sartell customers were when her son, Christopher, served a year in Iraq and even always asked about him after he returned home.

“The Sartell people were so supportive,” she recalled.

Niehaus and her husband, Tom, have lived in Richmond for many years. They have three adult offspring – Brian, who lives in Ramsey; Christopher, who lives in Paynesville; and Amy Michaelis, who also lives in Paynesville. Amy has two children, ages 5 and 3; and she lost a baby, Natalie, who was just weeks old last April when she succumbed to a virus that attacked her heart.

“That was so hard to bear; it still is,” Niehaus said. “Now we have two grandchildren on earth and one in heaven.”

Postal work seems to have a genetic factor in the Niehaus family. Tom worked for the Richmond post office as a rural carrier; and son Christopher also works as a rural carrier for the Cold Spring Post Office.

Thirty-one years ago, Terri and Tom both took a series of civil-service tests in order to become postal employees. They had friends who were in the postal service and thought they, too, would like the work. They were hired, and they did like the work. Very much so.

“The best thing about it is that I was never bored,” Niehaus said. “There was always a variety of things to do and always something new to learn.”

Her first job was in the Litchfield Post Office, but she also served from time to time in other post offices: Hamel, Paynesville, Atwater, Long Prairie. The jobs required her to commute in all kinds of weather, with Hamel being the longest commute at 90 minutes, one way.

It wasn’t always easy, but that’s what one had to do for a career in the postal service, Niehaus noted.

The biggest challenge of her career was when she was appointed to a supervisory position in a large post office after only two years of experience. There was a lot to learn in a short time, which made the job highly stressful now and then, Niehaus recalled, but it was a way of “paying one’s dues” and all she learned in the high-stress moments proved to be valuable in her subsequent jobs.

Eighteen years ago, she was appointed to the Sartell Post Office.

“The biggest changes during my (career) was automation,” she said. “Most mail is now read by an electronic eye so there’s less manual sorting.”

That, she said, freed her and the staff to concentrate on other daily duties. Throughout the years, there has been a dramatic increase in parcels and a big decrease in first-class mail, such as personal letters – not surprising in the age of emails.

In her retirement, one of the first things Niehaus will do is to help her husband restore a 1965 Plymouth Belvedere. She, Tom and one of their sons are all classic-car hobbyists. Niehaus also enjoys sewing, gardening and spending quality time with her precious granddaughters.