Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
WINONA LAKE - Pamela Ford was installed as the town postmaster in a noon ceremony at the Park Avenue post office Wednesday.
Ford began her postal career 14 years ago in Rochester, where she was a rural carrier associate. She became the Liberty Mills' postmaster in 1996, then at Lagro, then at Andrews. She has been acting postmaster at Monterey, Roann and Nappanee.
"The biggest challenges facing the Postal Service today are the need for postal reform and deteriorating volume resulting from the increasing use of electronic mail services. Greater pricing flexibility is needed as each 1-cent rise in the price of gasoline costs the Postal Service $1 million and, although our deliveries are increasing by about one million each year, volumes have declined.
"Much of this decline in volume can be attributed to the increased use of electronic services. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars and has operated on a break-even basis since the last major postal reform took effect in 1971," Ford said.
"The Postal Reform Act of 1970 has served the Post Office and the public well for many years, but is now antiquated. Reform is needed in order for the Postal Service to remain viable. Rates have remained steady now since July 2001 and our goal is to maintain current rates until 2006."
Ford said the biggest change she has seen within the Postal Service is the automation of mail processing.
When she began in 1990, bar codes were just beginning to be placed on mail to enable more machine processing and to reduce hand sorting. She said optical character readers are capable of reading about 80 percent of all addresses.
"At Winona Lake, the clerks hand sort less than 20 percent of the mail and, within the next few years, our mail may arrive in the office presorted, ready for the carrier to deliver to your door," she said.
Ford is a lifelong resident of Wabash County. She and her husband, Keith, have two grown children.
Ford holds an associate's degree in business from Indiana University-Kokomo and a bachelor's degree in organizational management from Huntington College.
