Guy named Leigh in 24533: Clifford post office gets new postmaster

By Aaron Lee

Published: June 4, 2008

Leigh Allen listens to whatever he wants to on the radio these days.

That’s a perk of being the new postmaster in Clifford where Allen’s mostly one-man show serves the rural clientele.

“That was a bone of contention in Amherst,” Allen joked about the WNRN FM modern-rock station he liked to dial into as a clerk at the post office in the town of Amherst.

If you’re going:

What: Clifford Post Office

Hours: M-F 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m, Sat. 8:15 to 11 a.m.

Where: On Virginia 151, near Winton Country Club

Located along Virginia 151, the Clifford post is less than ten minutes from Amherst where Allen worked for 15 years.

“One of the main reasons (for applying for the Clifford job) was so that I could have Saturdays off,” Allen said of having few Saturdays off since he started with the U.S. Postal Service in 1993.

Bettie Austin, who has worked as postmaster relief in Clifford for the last 24 years, will continue to work on Saturdays.

Allen has pulled three short stints as, essentially, a substitute postmaster with rural post offices while keeping his job in Amherst, working in Huddleston, Lynch Station and Glasgow.

And with Clifford he’s getting smaller.

In charge of roughly 80 P.O. boxes, Allen said he sorts the mail first thing in the morning and it takes him about 15 minutes.

The rest of his day is spent, at least for now, re-arranging and organizing his office and learning customer names.

“I’ve always been satisfied with the pace of a rural post office,” he said.

Raised in Lynchburg, Leigh, 46, and his wife Amy live in Amherst. He started as postmaster on May 27. The county’s other post offices are located in Madison Heights, Monroe and Amherst.