Ronnie Belew took up the office of postmaster for Dublin, marking a homecoming and the first Dubliner to officially take up the position since Bud McKinney retired.
As a 24-year employee with the post office, there’s not much new to Belew’s new post.
He took over as Dublin’s interim OIC (official in charge) in 2018 for around eight months before taking up duties in Lipan.
He also worked as a rural carrier and management in Stephenville.
He took up the role of postmaster in Cisco on Feb. 12 of this year and has been there until he took over the reins in Dublin mid-August.
The best part of his new post? “Being at home— knowing the people and getting to serve my community,” Belew answered quickly. “Knowing the people makes a big difference. The commute is also a lot better.”
Belew and his wife Melani (who works in curriculum and instruction at Dublin ISD), have lived on the outskirts of Dublin for a while so Ronnie has had longer drives to work until last month.
Ronnie has actually lived in the community since 1976, when his parents, Butch and Carolyn moved here.
Belew values the extra time since he and his family handle cattle, raising show calves and performing embryo transfers.
“It’s a full-time job,” Belew said. “When I leave here, I still have a long day ahead.”
Belew is also grateful to be working with the crew at Dublin again, many of whom he’s worked with for 15 to 20 years.
Belew credits the friendly staff as hard-working and dependable so his re-integration has been easy. The only major changes for the office are really from higher up.
He noted that the United State Postal Service has had some growing pains recently in decisions made on the national level, but said that the efforts are trying to reduce costs so the USPS can continue to offer dependable deliveries to those it serves.
Ronnie and Melani have raised three children through the Dublin school system.
Cody is a civil engineer who lives near Palestine, Texas with his wife, Kayla.
Their twin daughters, Carey and Carley, are in school to be radiology technologists and run the CT program in Weatherford on the weekends.