Kolmetz named postmaster
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, August 30, 2011
One might say that Mike Kolmetz’s father had his hand in his son’s postal career.
Kolmetz recently was named postmaster at the Andalusia Post Office, where he has served as the officer in charge since November 2010. He’s worked for the U.S. Postal Service for the past 18 years.
“I was in college at Samford University in Birmingham,” he said. “My dad worked for the post office in Baker, Fla. After my first year, I was going to come home and go to Pensacola Junior College.”
Kolmetz said his father filled out an application for him to take the rural carrier associate battery test and told him what day he would take the test.
“My dad wouldn’t let me come home and just go to school,” he said. “I got an interview for the job in June 1994, and started in July 1994.”
Kolmetz worked as the rural carrier while he pursued his associate degree, which he earned in July 1997.
“I took a semester off after that,” he said. “That’s when I met my wife, Karla, and we got married.”
Kolmetz said when he was hired at the post office, he didn’t think he would make a career out of it.
“I knew it was a good job,” he said. “I knew it would make a good career, but at 19, I had no idea what I wanted to do.”
Kolmetz said after he got married, he decided to make a career out of the post office.
He went to the University of West Florida and graduated in 2003.
In the meantime, Kolmetz worked his way up the postal service ladder.
In February 1998, he became a city letter carrier in Milton, Fla., and then transferred to the Crestview, Fla., Post Office in 2002. He was promoted to supervisor in 2006.
Kolmetz received another promotion in 2009, when he became the postmaster in Opp, where he served until he was moved to Andalusia last year.
Kolmetz said he enjoys interacting with the city’s residents.
“We don’t get to interact as much as I’d like because of my responsibility in the office,” he said. “(The interaction) is one of the main things I enjoy about this job.”
Kolmetz, his wife and their four children reside near Lockhart.