Tarkio Postmaster Deb Fletcher is retiring from the United States Postal Service after more than 20 years of service.

One of Tarkio’s favorite United States Postal Service employees will be saying goodbye to her customers for the last time this week. Tarkio Postmaster Deb Fletcher of Tarkio is retiring after more than 20 years of service. She will spend her last morning, Thursday, October 17, wishing everyone a fond farewell as she seeks new adventures.

Deb began in 1998 as a rural mail carrier, then later became a clerk. She’s been the postmaster for 20 years, having worked at six different offices. She said she’s loved the people and even the chaos of getting all the mail sorted in a timely manner and working with customers.

Deb has seen a lot of changes to the postal service over the years. Scanning and technology have advanced so much. Now they can tell where the mail carriers are and how fast or slow they walk and finish their route. Volume has also changed as back in the day, there used to be tons of catalogs sent by mail and now everyone orders online. However, the number of packages sent by mail has definitely picked up with all those online orders.

Deb’s plans for retirement include taking it easy and doing things around the house, although she said she’ll probably find another job somewhere along the way.

In Deb’s absence, Amanda Holeman from King City, Missouri, will be the Officer In Charge (OIC) while applications for postmaster are taken and interviews completed.