craigdailypress.com

Craig — With his hand on a Bible held by his two young sons, Victor Cordes took his oath Wednesday morning as Craig’s new postmaster.

“It’s exciting,” Cordes said after being sworn in, “even if it is kind of after the fact.”

Cordes has been on the job since February, handling day-to-day operations at the Craig Post Office.

“He’s basically the administrator of this office,” said Mark Lambert, manager of post office operation for western Colorado and Wyoming. “He has the ultimate say with what happens with his staff.”

Although Cordes has served as postmaster for eight months, it was only this week that schedules aligned for his official installation, Lambert said.

And several others made time to be at the ceremony, including residents, representatives from the Bureau of Land Management and the Craig Chamber of Commerce, Cordes’ wife and four children, another postmaster and plenty of local Postal Service employees. Cory, Colo., Postmaster Alice McCracken traveled four hours to come to Cordes’ installation, and she provided the refreshments at his reception.

“I think he’s doing a great job,” McCracken said. “It seems like most of the employees (like Cordes); the comments I’ve heard have been good.”

Cordes said he was happy to have his family participate in his installation; his oldest son, Teagan, recited the Pledge of Allegiance; his wife, Colleen, and daughter, Hannah, read a short biography of Cordes; and the two youngest sons, Zane and Ryan, held up the Bible for their dad.

“That’s perfect,” he said.

With his installation, Victor Cordes achieved a goal he set when he left a newspaper job in 1996 to work for the U.S. Postal Service as a mail carrier in Powell, Wyo.

“It was my goal,” he said. “I just didn’t expect it to come this fast.