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Then he and some friends and family will hop in their cars and head to
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Carol and Bill Bliven will each have their own installation ceremony Saturday as the new postmasters of LaCrosse (Carol) and Winona. The Bliven's have recently moved to Winona from the Twin Cities. |
La Crosse, Wis., where his wife, Carol Bliven, will be installed as that city’s postmaster.
Bill previously ran the Brooklyn Center post office and took the Winona job after Carol landed the job in La Crosse, where she is the first woman to head the office.
The couple met through work and estimate they’ve been friends for at least 20 years. They were married nine years ago and have five grown sons between them from previous marriages.
Bill, who is 53, began his career in 1975 as a clerk and mail carrier in Grand Forks, N.D. In 1978, he transferred to Minneapolis and eventually became a supervisor in Brooklyn Center. He later managed post offices in several Minneapolis suburbs.
Carol, 48, joined the postal service in 1980 as a clerk in the Minneapolis office and went on to hold various management positions in the Twin Cities. She has a degree in personnel administration and said it was always her goal to run a post office.
When the La Crosse job opened up, she took it on a trial basis, living in La Crosse from February until May and driving home to the Twin Cities on the weekend. Bill began looking for a job nearby and discovered the Winona job, which opened after former postmaster Terry Meyer retired. Meyer held the post since 1984.
“It’s almost like it was meant to be,” Carol said.
They looked for a home somewhere between La Crosse and Winona but had trouble finding anything, Carol said. Then they found a house in Valley Oaks.
That means Carol leaves for work at 6:30 a.m. and doesn’t get home until 7 p.m. most days, but both say they are amazed at how friendly and welcoming Winona has been.
“It reminds me, as a young girl, the neighbors were always around. Neighbors talk to each other,” said Carol, who grew up in Northeast Minneapolis.
Bill recounted a trip to Subway where an employee asked him how everything was going at the post office. Fine, he said, and added that he was new. The employee then welcomed him to the neighborhood.
“You just don’t see that (everywhere),” he said.
Carol, whose ancestors were Polish, said she’s excited to be in a town with a big Polish-American population (although she seemed a little disappointed that there isn’t a Polish restaurant).
Both are adjusting to life in Winona. As head of the folks responsible for delivering the mail, Bill faces a few extra challenges with geography n like Winona’s dual-named streets.
“It’s Broadway, and then it’s Sixth,” he said. “I’ve never seen that before.”
