Meet Kathy Stinnett

Meet Kathy Stinnett - TGO’s Mail Guru

One of the greatest benefi ts of living inside TGO is that we have our own mail center. Imagine every time you needed this service, you had to drive downtown and deal with the crowds, especially during holiday season. Well, we are not only lucky to have this service onsite, but we are also lucky to have Kathy Stinnett, who has managed our mail center for the past 16 years. Kathy has lived in TGO for about 25 years. She and her husband, Bill, fi rst started on Oak Cove with an RV lot and then built their house on Grande Haven where they’ve lived for over 21 years. In her former life, Kathy was offi ce manager at the Dearborn Sausage Company in Dearborn, MI, where she handled all the shipping responsibilities for the hams and sausages her company distributed domestically. Bill worked with Ford Motor Company at the Romulus, MI, parts redistribution center. After retiring, they fi rst moved to Kentucky and lived on Lake Barkley for seven years. They then moved to TGO. Between the two of them they have six children and several grandchildren.

Kathy started working at the mail center 16 years ago. Back then, the mail volume was no where near what it is today. Our current mail center was originally a storage garage for an antique fi retruck (that’s a whole other story). Kathy has seen a lot of changes to our postal service here in TGO. One of those was the impact of the internet, especially Amazon, which has created a mass volume of packages that both arrive and ship from our mail center. “Right now, we handle about 3,000 packages a month,” explained Kathy, “and that is just the the RV sites.” Our mail center and Kathy’s staff is responsible for all mail and packages related to the RV sites. This includes the streets of Sunset, Greenwing, Club Cove, Coach Club, Windsong, Oak Cove, Fawn Trail and the RV sites on Plantation. There are two separate mail routes in TGO; the RV sites and the Residential sites. The US Postal worker you see in the offi ce and at the outside parcel lockers is distributing the mail for the residential route and takes care of the mail and packages that are delivered to those houses. Our mail center is almost a full-service facility. The only thing they don’t do is handle overnight mail and some things related to international mail, like international packages requiring customs forms. Besides Kathy there are four other part-time employees; Nancy, Pat, Debbie and Tacy. “It takes about a year for a new employee to learn everything involved in the job,” claims Kathy. “Even though we are not offi cial postal employees, we still abide by all postal rules and regulations.” When we were there for the interview, we joked with Kathy about receiving large boxes - which is diffi cult for her staff as they are limited on space to store too many boxes, let alone large ones. She went on to explain that she has received mattresses, a power washer and even a 6 foot electric child’s car. She’s hoping no one will be shipping her any refrigerators any time soon.

Kathy has seen a lot of changes to our mail service here in TGO. One of those was the impact of the internet, especially Amazon...

How YOU can help our TGO mail operation run smoothly...

1. Please wait at least two hours from the time you receive a notice on your phone or computer that your package has arrived before coming to the mail center. Here’s how it works... The truck backs up to mail center, scans the packages and puts them in the office, but they don’t put the packages in the parcel lockers or place the pink slips in the box. That’s what Kathy and her team does, so that two hour time period is necessary for them to sort packages and put the notices in the boxes or the packages in the parcel lockers. 2. Empty your mailbox at least every other day. Don’t let it accumulate for more than two days. The boxes are small and if they get too full, the mail has to be put into a holding box and put on a shelf and there is very limited space. Shelf space is designated for mail that is being held. Please don’t treat the mail center as a storage facility. 3. Rather than calling to ask if there is a package for you, please go look for yourself. Between all the mail and packages, they don’t have time to look for everyone’s packages. There will be a key or pink slip in your box if you have a package. 4. If you are running a business out of your house and need lots of supplies, please don’t rely on our mail center for your supplies. Please order them from USPS (where they are free) or other supply sites. Our mail center has limited space for shipping boxes, bags and labels. 5. If you are leaving for the summer and want your mail held, please know that your mail can be held for free for 30 days. Just let the mail center know you will be gone so they can collect your mail. There is a form you will need to fill out. If you want your mail forwarded, there is a small fee of $25 per month plus postage to facilitate this service.

This behind-the-scene look provides just a small glimpse of the amount of individual boxes that Kathy and her team maintain. All-in-all, there are over 1,400 boxes. The US Postal Service delivers mail directly to 800 residential boxes and Kathy’s staff manages over 600 boxes - which are the RV sites. In addition, her team is responsible for receiving and distributing over 3,000 packages a month.