Tupper Lake’s postmaster is enjoying his job

by Dan McClelland

Just over a year into his new position as the Tupper Lake postmaster, Nick DeGrace is enjoying the job.

Nick’s promotion came just over a year ago on July 1, 2023.

“I very much like it,” he said, sitting for a moment behind his desk in his office off the lobby.

A Tupper Lake native, Nick is the son of Colleen Proulx DeGrace and the late Nick DeGrace. Nick’s uncle is former Police Chief Robert “Butch” DeGrace.

The family moved from Tupper Lake to Saranac Lake when Nick was eight. His dad worked for Davison Chevrolet in Ray Brook as a detailer and his mother worked as a nurse at the hospital.

Nick is a 1985 graduate of Saranac Lake High School.

After high school he joined the work force, working in assorted jobs.

He and his wife Val have one son, Dane. Dane and his wife, Brittany, are are parents of two children- daughter Tessa and son, Jackson. The family lives in Vermontville and Nick said he’s tickled to be a grandfather.

“I worked at a lot of restaurants in Lake Placid after high school and then turned to electrical work, living and working in Saranac Lake.

Nick joined the United State Postal Service in September, 1998, starting as a part-time letter carrier. He did that for about nine years.

“I was outside most of my time with the post office,” he noted. He worked as a letter carrier on the various local routes for 25 years.

Last July he was appointed to succeed Postmaster Hannah Fokenmeyer, after serving as a time as acting postmaster, when she was out on medical leave.

“I knew most of the programs here so I stepped in to help and to keep things running” at the office here.

Over the years Nick had taken training under previous postmasters to eventually be the “officer in charge” at a post office here or somewhere.

He was trained over the years as an inside clerk too, but he never worked in that capacity here. From time to time, however, he would fill in to help Clerks Mike Larabie, Mary Simmons Dennis Neenan and others at the hometown PO.

Over the years Nick has worked here under a number of postmasters, including Fred Everhart, Mike Chartier, Vaughn Stevens, Kevin Hanlon and Hannah.

“All of them gave me opportunities to learn the various post office systems.”

He noted that the letter carrier’s job is physically demanding, as carriers are in and out of the vehicles, up and over curbs, up and down stairs to get the mail to the residents of a community. The work took its toll on Nick’s knees.

Mentally, carriers typically catch on quickly to their routes and develop their own systems to best service the customers on their routes.

Letter carriers also must work every day until all their mail is delivered, and its not uncommon to see them delivering mail into the early evening.

“You work from your first delivery to your last delivery.”

And when the post office is short-handed, as it has often been in recent years, the letter carriers pick up the slack to insure mail is delivered promptly and efficiently every day.

Jobs are routinely posted on USPS.com and people apply on line and take the required tests on line, he explained.

For decades postmasters in communities across America were politically appointed and it was a job that carried some local political weight.

“The postmaster is actually the highest ranking federal official” in a community, Nick said of that legacy.

“I love the job!” he admitted matter-of-factly during our interview. He said he finds it very both satisfying and challenging.

The 57 year old wants to complete his postal service in his hometown. “But I’m not going to rush to retirement, because I really like what I do!”

Nick keeps his office door open almost all the time, and judging by the comments from customers he has received, people like that.

“I’m open to everyone...I like to see people in here!”

He notes the postmaster’s job is to run the local operation and to make sure there is adequate staff to do that. “If you’re short of staff, you do what you have to do to get the mail out.” And that includes picking up a postal bag and delivering the mail on a route.

“On a recent week one of the carrier’s daughter was very ill and she had to stay home. So I went out and did her route. -And then I did my job when I finished hers!”

Monday he was out delivering mail again on one of the uptown routes.

He knows all the local routes very well, having done them all at one time or another. He’s also done the private contract routes on the outer edges of the community.

He said if the private contractors can’t complete their route, he or they try to find a replacement, but the bottom line is that if all else fails, he would have to do that route. “Fortunately,” he noted, “our contractors are very reliable.”

He feels the postal service is a good career opportunity for a person today and he feels it’s been good to him and his family.

“Everyone here knows their jobs, they know what they need to do,” and he finds that make the work environment very pleasant. “We have a very good crew here and there’s always been a good crew in Tupper!”

Crew members include Leon Jessie, Judy LaPlante, Wendy Pavlus, Nick LeBlanc, Erin Kentile, Jake Philion, Joe Kelly and Rebecca Mitchell.

“People here really care about their jobs and they understand how important the U.S. Mail is to people!”

Traditionally first class mail was the bread and butter of the postal service, but parcel post is now emerging as a mainstay, he said he has seen over recent years.

He estimated that from the time he started with the postal service the number of first class letters are a tenth of the business of the post office now, what with e-mail and other social media.

“We used to have six or seven complete trays of letters to deliver every day. Now we maybe have two?”

Catalogues and third-class mail like flyers have also decreased dramatically over the years to the point now it’s mostly gone, he noted.

Part of the post office’s mission now is working with private carriers like UPS to deliver packages locally.

“We’ve been doing that for a long time. Our express mail, for example, comes here and goes over the counter. It’s trucked to Plattsburgh or Albany and then connects with a private carrier like UPS or Fed-Ex, he said of just one change in recent years. Some of those national private carriers move the mail from there by airliner. “The postal service uses Fed-Ex planes for some of our mail.”

He explained that the postal service never employed its own air fleet and used to ship mail on the flights of commercial carriers.

“We’re basically helping each other,” he said of the evolved symbiotic relationship of the postal service and the big private delivery companies.

The postal service is the “last mile” deliverer of of many “smart post” services today.

Nick admitted that if he was to start his working career all over, he would certainly again join the postal service. “It’s a good job...it really is!”

“-And I’ve met a lot of nice people along the way!”

During his time with the post office here Nick also served as a volunteer fireman for over a decade, some of that community-service time as a department captain. He was also a volunteer on the Tupper Lake Emergency and Rescue Squad for nearly a decade.