Michael Gerlach

Michael Gerlach

Editor’s Note: The following is part of a series of articles profiling The Inter-Mountain’s staff.

ELKINS — Michael Gerlach learned quickly — during his second day on the job — to multi-task when he started working in the mailroom and pressroom at The Inter-Mountain.

“This April, I will have been at The Inter-Mountain for four years,” Gerlach said.

“My first day here, they started me on the jacket,” he said. “But the very next day, one of the guys who was working here quit, and I was put down at the other end of the machine, catching the papers as they come out of the flygate. I became a flyer, as we call it.

“I still fly the papers out. Sometimes I also put inserts into the machine, and sometimes I count the papers as well,” Gerlach said. “I can run the insert machine if they need me to. I just do whatever’s needed. It’s never boring.”

Gerlach said he enjoys performing a variety of tasks.

“My favorite thing to do is sending the papers out and running the strapper machine. I really enjoy that part,” he said. “It takes a while to catch on to how to do it, and then you have to get your speed up to what’s needed.

“I also like going around and fixing the inserts as we’re running the insert machine. Sometimes the inserts just don’t want to go through the machine. You’ve got to fight with them,” he said with a laugh.

Gerlach said the best part of his job is working with a group of people he considers friends.

“I really like the people I work with,” he said. “It’s a rare thing to find a place where you can get along well with everyone you work with, and that’s really the way it is for me here. We’re like a big family.”

One of his co-workers is literally a member of his family. His aunt, Lora Gerlach, has worked in The Inter-Mountain’s mailroom and pressroom for more than 20 years.

“When I got hired and they were showing me around the place, I said, ‘I already know! I’ve been coming here to see my aunt for years,'” he said, chuckling.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an effect on the mailroom and pressroom, he said, but hasn’t hindered the staff’s productivity.

“We have to follow the guidelines, but even though we’re having to stay separate from each other we’re still working together. It hasn’t slowed our work down. We just had to figure out ways to work with the rules,” he said.

In his offhours, Gerlach enjoys playing video games — like “The Legend of Zelda” and “Pokemon” — and also cooking.

“I grew up knowing how to cook. It’s well-known about our family that a Gerlach can cook. It’s like an instinct from birth,” he joked.

Gerlach has a younger brother in middle school, and a younger sister who graduated from high school last year.