Zimmerline retires after 28 years in postal service

In 28 years, Justi Zimmerline has given a lot of attention to detail, making sure letters and packages Fontanelle residents send and receive reach to their final destinations effectively.

After all that time, Zimmerline has elected to take an early retirement from the U.S. Postal Service. Her last day at the Fontanelle Post Office as Postmaster was last Friday. It is believed that she will be the last postmaster Fontanelle will have.

This week, Zimmerline, 48, is transitioning to giving full-time attention to another passion of hers — the world of cosmetology — going full-time at her salon, The Best Little Hair House, where she has worked part-time until this point.

“This has been a roller coaster,” Zimmerline said. “I’ve been a wreck because these are my people and I want whoever comes in to take care of my people. When you live and serve your own community, it’s hard. When I’ve worked in other places, those are your people, but you weren’t born and raised there.”

Because Fontanelle does not have in-town mail delivery service, a large percentage of residents have post office boxes, meaning Zimmerline sees them regularly when they pick up their mail. She tries to keep in perspective that for some of some people some days, she may be the only interaction they have.

Zimmerline’s mother and aunt both worked for the USPS. Her mom Julie encouraged her to take the postal exam after high school, and she passed it. She’s worked in over 17 different post offices over the years, all within about a 40-minute radius of Fontanelle, starting in 1997 in Creston. In fact, at one point, she would cover for so many of them that co-workers thought they were seeing double — they would run into her one place in the morning, another in the middle of the day and another at the end of the day.

Zimmerline was a clerk at the Adair post office from 1999-2006, then went to Lorimor, Macksburg, Bridgewater and finally transitioned to Fontanelle in October 2009. She has seen a lot of changes, even since arriving in Fontanelle. At that time, it was open eight hours a day, and since 2013, it has only been open six. There used to be two routes out of Fontanelle, now there’s one.

In addition to doing hair, Zimmerline plans to continue to assist the Rustic Tap bar with their community and live music events. A party was held for her there over the weekend.

Zimmerline shared she has a lot of people to thank, including former carriers Ron Bauer and Alan Brewer, as well as former co-workers Miranda Warrior and Al and Cindy Baldago.

It is vitally important for people to utilize their small town post office, Zimmerline said.

“When people buy their stamps at the gas station, people don’t realize that comes from Ankeny, that doesn’t come from here,” Zimmerline said. “They can buy them anywhere, but you want them to keep the post office a six-hour office.”