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His name is Barry.
Every day, at the same time, Barry Lavender, a mustachioed dynamo, strides into their shop or deli or place of business with a cheerful greeting and their mail.
"He's right as rain," said Kim Berry, owner of the Curiosity Shoppe on East Main Street.
"He hearkens back to a time when people took the time to get to know other people and to do their job to make a difference," said Matt Shaub, a Lititz resident who sees Lavender on his daily routine. "You don't find people like that anymore."
So when they learned Lavender, "their" mailman, was going to be moved from his longtime route, they staged a petition drive, collecting more than 50 signatures and pleading to keep him there.
It didn't work.
Lavender's removal is a sign of the times, a reflection of the troubled economy and changes in the way a nation communicates information and greetings.
The United States Postal Service is in the midst of realigning carrier routes here and across the country in response to a declining amount of mail.
The souring economy is the major factor in the "unprecedented" drop in mail volume, said Mark Hnasko, a postal service spokesman for a 34-county slice of of the state that includes Lancaster and stretches between the New York and Maryland borders.
Banks and credit card companies are not sending out as many mail offers. Catalogue mailings are decreasing. Other promotional mailings also have dropped. And people increasingly turn to e-mail, text messaging and other electronic ways of communicating rather than the traditional "snail mail."
This year, the postal service is looking at a decrease of 20 billion pieces of mail across the country.
A letter carrier who has less mail to deliver doesn't need as much time to deliver it.
So, in cooperation with the national letter carriers' union, the postal service is adjusting urban routes — those where the mail is delivered on foot — in the United States.
Between January and March, 93,000 routes were adjusted and 2,500 routes were cut. The affected mail carrier positions are being eliminated largely through attrition.
Across central Pennsylvania, adjustments are being made to 100 of 2,100 urban routes, a process that will continue through August. In the Lititz area, one urban route is being eliminated.
"It's a bigger story than just in Lititz," Hnasko said. "It's happening in all offices."
That is small consolation to Lavender's loyalists.
"I was really feeling bummed when I heard he wasn't going to be able to have the same route," said Pixie Beck, owner of the Teddy Bear Emporium, an East Main Street business where Lavender greets her and her two dogs, Gryffyn and Chloe.
Vicki Gassman is an owner of the nearby Sassy Tassel. Her shop is rather long and narrow and sometimes she works in the back, but when Lavender comes in the front door, he always makes sure she knows her mail has arrived.
"I've never seen him pass a person without a hello or kind word," Berry said.
Lavender, 51, is a former New York City police officer who moved to Lancaster County with his family six years ago.
He was looking for a second career, and when he applied for a carrier position, it became more than a job.
"Ask anyone who knows me," said Lavender, who rides his bike two miles to work each day from his home. "I absolutely love this job. I cannot wait to get up in the morning and come to work.
"I love being outside. I love the chance to say hello to people all day long, give them directions, tell them the best place to go for lunch."
He loves his customers, too, along his 400 or so stops through the business and residential district of the town of about 9,000 residents.
Lavender has noticed the drop-off in mail volume, saying it doesn't take him as long as it used to to complete his route.
When July ends, Lavender will leave his mail route and then fill in for other carriers in the area for about 60 days.
At that point, he will be reassigned. He hopes to stay in the Lititz area or, if that's not possible, come back there some day.
"I just love it here," he said.
E-mail: cstauffer@lnpnews.com
