YACHATS – After six months of substitutes and occasional closures, the Yachats Post Office has a new postmaster – and more help is on the way.
Chanda Kowitz of Yachats, who has been helping out many days when the post office has been short-handed, assumed her new duties effective Saturday, Jan. 1.
Kowitz replaces Jeff Davis, who had been the postmaster for 10 years and who retired in July. Davis’ departure and the absence of longtime clerk Angie Bagby this summer forced U.S. Postal Service officials on the coast to scramble to keep the office operating as they suffered their own staff shortages.
Bagby, a customer favorite, will remain in Yachats. “Angie is not going anywhere,” Kowitz said.
Kowitz also said the Postal Service is in the process of hiring and training a second clerk – Clay Silvonen — to fill a position that was open most of last year. Silvonen has been a contract mail carrier in Waldport, she said, and is familiar with postal operations.
“I’m really excited for the opportunity, to be fully staffed, and to see how we can make this an excellent facility for Yachats,” Kowitz said.
“During the time I have already spent at the Yachats Post Office I have greatly appreciated how kind and welcoming the community has been,” she said. “I will freely admit that I have much to learn, but there is also a fantastic support system within the local post office and beyond.”
Kowitz grew up in Waldport and lives in Yachats with her husband, Chris, and three children.
More recently, Kowitz was in charge of the Waldport and Yachats post offices while Waldport postmaster Peter Roina was on a three-month assignment in Bend.
Kowitz said she still will be moving between the two offices “for a short time” until Waldport completes its hiring of more staff.
Kowitz began as a custodian in the Waldport Post Office in 2018 and became a clerk in 2020. Roina said he encouraged her to apply for the clerk opening “quickly found out that she was an extremely fast learner, very positive and energetic and I knew she would do great things for the USPS.”