Gentry mail carrier retiring at end of month

Westside Eagle Observer/RANDY MOLL Jim Burrus sorts mail in the Gentry post office on Thursday morning before going out on his delivery route. Burrus plans to retire at the end of the month after working 19 years as a mail carrier and most of the years in Gentry.
Westside Eagle Observer/RANDY MOLL Jim Burrus sorts mail in the Gentry post office on Thursday morning before going out on his delivery route. Burrus plans to retire at the end of the month after working 19 years as a mail carrier and most of the years in Gentry.

GENTRY -- Postal partons on Route 1 in Gentry may soon miss the man who has delivered their mail for the past 9 1/2 years. Jim Burrus, who has been a mail carrier for 19 years and most of that time in Gentry, plans to retire at the end of the month.

Burrus said he will miss his work at the post office but that its time to retire and let the younger mail carriers take over.

He said he and his wife, Dianne Burrus, a retired school teacher, have plans to do some traveling together and that he has a "honey-do" list to keep him busy when he's done delivering the mail.

Burrus said he started delivering mail in Bella Vista years ago -- something a little difficult to do in the winter months when there were snow and ice along his route. He said he worked through the days when people expected the postal service to get smaller and smaller and, more recently, the days when the postal service got much busier again due to the growth of online sales and packages to deliver.

He ran a number of routes in Gentry over the years but has been the mail carrier on Route 1 for 9 1/2 years.

General News on 12/27/2017