When Genoa Postmaster Emmy Dombrowski first came to work for the Minden Post Office in 1978, Carson Valley was a sleepier place.
When she took over in Genoa, the post office had 218 of the 232 boxes. A highway contract driver would bring the mail at 11 a.m. and after it was distributed, take the outgoing mail with them to Minden.
"Sometimes I would take the mail that came in after it went out to Minden so it would be posted that day," she said. "I did that for a year then transportation in Reno actually put us on the highway contract truck so we could change the dispatch hours. Then people started using the Genoa Post Office."
On Tuesday, Dombrowski, 57, retires after 35 years working for the U.S. Postal Service, 21 of which were spent in charge of Nevada's longest operating post office.
Dombrowski went to work for the Postal Service part time in 1969 while she attended college.
She left for a short time in the early 1970s when she got married, went overseas to Germany with her then-husband and then returned to California with two children.
Upon her return in 1974, she worked in Santa Rosa, Calif., and then transferred to Nevada.
"I came to Minden in November 1978 to work for Bill Godecke," she said. "He was great and it was a real neat time."
She lived in Smith Valley with her aunt and uncle, who owned a ranch there, and commuted to her job in Minden and then in Carson City.
A blizzard convinced her it was time to move to the Valley about the same time that she took the job in Genoa.
"We had to get up early on Thursdays to get The Record-Courier out because it was all mailed then," she said. "I left home at 3 a.m. in the blizzard and didn't get into work until 8 a.m.
"Gus Schank was the postmaster and the post office forgot he was retiring," she said. "He called one day and asked who they would have cover the next day and they sent me to be officer in charge."
Dombrowski started out in the post office next to the Genoa Store in May 1985 and on July 7 was named postmaster.
"I was qualified for the office and I tried five times before to be postmaster," she said. "I was told to apply for Genoa. It wasn't a promotion at the time. As a clerk I made the same amount as postmaster for Genoa. The difference was that the clerks were getting raises and management wasn't. So that was hard."
Dombrowski said she had to get a waiver to live in the Ranchos and be postmaster in Genoa because the postal service preferred that employees live in the same community.
By the early '90s, the post office was bursting at the seams, having doubled the number of boxes rented and developing a waiting list.
"We had credit card machines and everything and it was all crammed into the post office," she said. "Now we have 1,064 boxes of which 772 are actually rented."
Dombrowski was an advocate for building a new post office in Genoa, a process that took up most of the 1990s.
A new post office south of town was built and opened in 1999.
Dombrowski said the future of the Genoa Post Office is bright. Several projects under construction in the Genoa area may eventually lead to cluster box delivery in parts of the post office's district.
"We asked the folks at Montana (a housing development north of Genoa) to install cement pads for cluster boxes to facilitate installing cluster boxes," she said.
And the post office will be in good hands as well, Dombrowski said. Minden postal clerk Janie Cattoor will be officer in charge of the Genoa Post Office while the postal service looks for a new postmaster.
"People don't like change, but hopefully whoever takes over will enjoy the office as much as I did," she said.
Dombrowski plans to enjoy her grandson, who turned 2 on Friday, and to help her children, Jennifer and Philip, both of whom live in the Valley. Her son-in-law, is Corey Hawker, who was injured last year at Sand Mountain.
"Both my son and daughter have their own businesses and I'll help them," she said.
A potluck dinner to honor Dombrowski is 5 p.m. Friday in the Genoa Town Hall.
