After 31 years of service Sharon Smith, Postmaster of the Metamora Post Office, is retiring. Sharon started her Postal career on August 17, 1974 in Lyons, Ohio. We asked Sharon to recall her 31 years.

  "I went into the Post Office to get my mail one day and the Postmaster, Orva Rashley, asked me if I would be interested in taking the test for PTF (part-time flex). I said I would think about it. A few days went by and she asked me again and I said I guess I would try. When the time came I was more worried about, getting to downtown Toledo and back than in taking the test. I was not one to drive much and had not driven in Toledo. I took the test and passed it (and did get back to Lyons). I started working that Saturday after my test and worked as a four-hour clerk, and when the Postmaster took vacation or sick leave. As a single Mother of four children, I also worked at Hall’s Market, Norm’s Restaurant and cleaned houses in Lyons to help out with the finances.

  In 1979 the Wauseon Post Office needed help and I needed the hours so I worked as a PTF clerk- carrier, which means I worked as a clerk and carried city mail when needed. In 1981 I transferred to the Wauseon Post Office at the request of Postmaster Hank Mazur, working 45 to 60 hours per week. In August of 1984, I was diagnosed with Leukemia and spent 5 months in treatment. When I went back to work in February 1985, I couldn’t perform the job as well. Postmaster Darrel Garmenn suggested I bid the Postmaster job in Metamora, Ohio. In March of 1985 became the Postmaster in Metamora. I would be the second woman Postmaster ever in Metamora, the first being Mildred Hendricks in 1915.

  I THOUGHT I wanted a bigger office! I was OIC (officer-in-charge) at Montpelier, Ohio for 6 months. Delta, Ohio for 4 months and Waterville, Ohio for 6 months. After a lesson in finding out how good I had it in Metamora, I came back and have been there since."

  Sharon said "31 years is a long time to be at one job." She has had different duties in the Postal Service, but the one she liked the best was being the Postmaster in Metamora. With the help of the good employees she has had over the years she hopes that the citizens of Metamora feel she did the best job she could to serve them daily.

  Sharon plans to do some traveling after-she-retires and enjoy for a while. She has four children, Sherri Gillen, Rhonda Urbanowski, Jamie Thrailkill and Jennifer Bernholtz. She has eight grandchildren, Justin and Logan Gillen, Taylor Urbanowski, Brandon, Chad and Erica Thrailkill and Kelsie and Brock Bernholtz. She is very proud of all of them and hopes to spend more time with them (in between her travels!).

Her parents are, Keith and Frieda Shulters and sisters, Linda Reckner, Phyllis Smith, Patricia Blanchard, Julie Miller and Doris Kreighbaum.

We, along with the rest of her family and friends wish her a long, happy and joyful retirement!

Best Wishes Sharon!

Evergreen Local School District Officials Lower Future Bond Taxes By Over $1.1 Million Through Timely Refinancing

     On July 12, 2005, Evergreen Local School District successfully refinanced a loan agreement that it entered into originally in September 1999 to pay construction of their new high school. The original loan was made possible when District voters approved a $12 million facilities construction bond issue in May 1999. District Treasurer Linda Kidwell spearheaded this effort and reports that the refinancing lowered the District’s overall interest payments and saves District taxpayers $1,105,819 over the life of the new loan. The new loan is set to be paid in full in 2024, which is exactly the same structure as the original loan. This savings does not help finance District operations in anyway whatsoever – it simply reduces District taxpayers’ bond taxes over the life of the refinancing. Bond taxes are separate from operating taxes. The interest rate on the original loan, which is called a bond sale in the financing world, was approximately 5%. The new interest rate is approximately 4%. The District achieved this refinancing with the assistance of a team of finance experts including Robert W. Baird, Inc. advisor and bond underwriter, and Squire, Sanders and Dempsey, legal counsel. Once the effect of the elimination of the personal property tax on bond fund collections is determined, District officials will meet with the Fulton County Auditor to decide when we can roll back the millage collected

Owens Community College Raises Tuition