Commerce Road Gets New Postmaster

By Nancy K. Crevier

Mark Hanson of Stratford has taken over the position of postmaster at the Commerce Road Newtown Post Office as of October 15. Mr Hanson comes to Newtown from Derby, where he held the position of Acting Postmaster for the past four years.

A 26-year veteran of the United States Postal Service (USPS), Mr Hanson started in management in 1998 as a supervisor in Stamford, where he oversaw 90 carriers.

“Derby was a relatively small office,” said Mr Hanson, “and Newtown is kind of in between those two towns.” At the Newtown Post Office, 22 carriers service 2,064 customers, delivering approximately 110,000 pieces of mail each week. He oversees them, as well as two supervisors and 14 postal clerks. His responsibilities as postmaster also include making sure the Commerce Street office budget is efficiently handled.

“When this job [in Newtown] came up, it wasn’t that far from my home and I had known the previous postmaster here, Paul Marciniak, for some time. He said it was a nice place to work, and I decided it was time to go to the next level in my career,” said Mr Hanson.

Customer service is Mr Hanson’s number one priority, he said. “If the customers aren’t happy, we don’t do well.” Good one-to-one contact at the front desks between customers and staff is important, as is getting the mail out in a timely manner, he added.

Mr Hanson said that in the two weeks he has been on the job in Newtown he has been impressed with the high quality of service offered customers.

“It’s a nice facility, too, with ample parking,” he added.

Another item high on his list for the Newtown Post Office is increasing the number of local businesses that use the USPS.

“I plan to visit businesses here in town and encourage them to use the Postal Service for mailing needs. We are in competition with FedEx and UPS, and I would like to see more businesses here using [the USPS].”

Learning names and learning the ins and outs of this particular post office have taken a good share of time in his early days in Newtown, but Mr Hanson said, “Everything’s been going very well here. It’s just learning how this operation runs and trying to tweak it a little.”