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Wednesday, June 28, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Longtime-mail carrier retires
Former OSP evidence
room worker arrested
By Jim Cornelius
News Editor
Fifi Bailey brought the old
saw about mail delivery in
rain, snow and dark of night
to life for 38 years, work-
ing six days a week across
Sisters Country.
The day she got the mail
delivery contract, she gave
birth to her daughter, and
nothing has slowed her down
since.
She brought mail from
Bend in a pickup truck with
a tall canopy, delivered
it through the area, then
returned with mail to Bend.
“I’ve been through three
post offices in Sisters,” she
noted.
Her routes got trimmed
back several times, and so
she started operating Fifi’s
Hauling Service, hauling
yard debris, during her after-
noon layovers. She’ll con-
tinue operating that business,
because clients depend upon
her.
And clients is what it’s all
about for Bailey.
She cheerfully acknowl-
edges that, on paper, her job
wasn’t the best.
“It’s a lousy job,” she
told The Nugget. “No ben-
efits, low pay. So — ask me
why I’ve been around for 38
years? It’s the people… It’s
been fulfilling because of the
people.”
The people she grew to
know and to love on her
route supported her through
a dark time when her son
Brian suffered kidney failure
at 16, and required a trans-
plant. He continues to deal
with after-effects of his kid-
ney malfunction.
Sisters Country itself has
kept her content on her route.
K L A M AT H FA L L S
(AP) — A former evidence
technician with the Oregon
State Police accused of steal-
ing more than $10,000 from
a Klamath Falls evidence
locker is facing a charge of
aggravated theft.
Police say 57-year-old
Mark Matlick was arrested
Friday and also faces mul-
tiple counts of computer
crimes, tampering with public
records, forgery and official
misconduct.
Authorities say Matlick
worked for the Oregon State
Police from 2007 through
2015 at the Klamath Falls
Area Command.
Authorities say supervi-
sors became aware in October
2016 that evidence had been
unlawfully removed.
Officials say an investiga-
tion found more than $10,000
was missing and that the
evidence database had been
tampered with to hide the
thefts.
It’s not clear if Matlick has
an attorney.
www.NuggetNews.com
PHOTO BY JIM CORNELIUS
Fifi Bailey is retiring after 38 years on the road, delivering mail across
Sisters Country.
“I am still awestruck by
the fall colors, by the win-
ter after a snowstorm,” she
said. “Seriously, I’m still
awestruck.”
It’s a long way from her
native Iowa, where she got
her degree in English and
journalism and trained to be
a teacher. But she’ll tell you
that life takes you in direc-
tions you don’t expect.
Now her direction is
pointed toward raising
awareness for organ dona-
tion. She’s working on sev-
eral ideas for a major Sisters
fundraiser for that cause.
“I’ve got all kinds of
ideas, I just need help pull-
ing it all together,” she said.
“I want to make what hap-
pened to Brian happen for a
reason.”
Her many friends on her
route will host a retirement
gathering on Thursday, June
29, from 9:45 a.m. to 12:30
p.m. at the Camp Sherman
Post Office. The public is
invited.
Those interested in help-
ing her with raising aware-
ness for organ transplant
issues may contact her at
541-419-2204.
I Live in
Sisters
and I
Love
it Here
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