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Carrabelle gets a new postmaster
John Powers has been on the job as Carrabelle’s new postmaster since just before Thanksgiving, but on Wednesday morning, March 30, it was made official before God and country.
At an oath of office ceremony at Sands Park, with Carrabelle Brenda La Paz, Eastpoint Postmaster Pamela Shiver, and various local office holders in attendance, Powers’ wife Jamie held the Bible as Daniel Becker, the district manager of postal operations, administered the oath office. Also on hand was District Manager Richard Fermo.
Powers, 52, swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” in the oath, not unlike the one he took in 1988, not long after his graduation from high school in Jacksonville, when he entered the Army.
After training at Fort Leonard Wood, in Missouri, and Fort Knox, in Kentucky, Powers served with armored units, including stints during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
Following that, in 1994 he retired from the military on disability. In June 1995 he started with the U.S. Postal Service, and over the last 11 years, has served as acting postmaster in Burlington, Lexington and High Point, North Carolina post offices, and as postmaster in Mount Airy, North Carolina.
He’s been manager of customer service in a few cities over the years, including Tallahassee, where he now lives.
Powers, who beginning Nov. 22 succeeded Mike Harless, the postmaster in Carrabelle for the last two decades, said he’s looking forward to the lower level of stress that small-town life provides.
“It’s kind of a breath of fresh air,” he said.
Powers oversees a staff of about five contractors, and two part-time clerks, who handle the postal duties. And he has a father and son duo who take the mail to Dog Island by boat three days a week.
On March 23, he and wife Jamie, parents of a married son and daughter-in-law, marked their 20th wedding anniversary.
Powers made sure they did it up right. He took her on a cruise to Aruba, Bonaire, and Grand Turk.
