Community Corner

Holmdel News Carrier Amanda Martin Delivers [Video]

Thump! The Thursday Independent just hit the driveway. But how did it get there?

Santa Claus isn't the only one delivering this time of year. Amanda Martin does her rounds too, in a minivan. Stuffed with newspaper.

Martin, 30 of Union Beach is one of four news carriers who delivers Greater Media's weekly Independent publication to 4,400 Holmdel houses every Thursday. Including the Thursday that fell on September 29, 2011 -- the day she ignored contractions that signaled the early birth of her third son, Devin.

"I say I delivered two things that day," she said, laughing.

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The Independent is a free newspaper, supported by advertising, that offers news reporting and event information in the Bayshore towns. Martin's mom is Anita Gesualdo, a longtime pro who raised six kids while delivering papers on the side. She handles the Takolusa Drive area. Amanda Martin delivers 846 papers to houses and neighborhoods along Holmdel Road, South Beers Street, Van Brackle, Line Road and off Route 34.

The carriers begin their duty on Wednesday, when an evening text or phone call alerts them that the newspaper trucks from the printing plant in Rockaway have arrived. They go meet the truck at the parking lot next to Jacques Reception Hall in North Middletown.

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Carriers come to pick up plastic-wrapped bundles of papers. The Independent, typically the last of ten Greater Media papers to be printed, is the one most likely to be "hot off the presses." Back at home, the Martin family works together to fold and stuff them into plastic sleeves.

"We have a lot of people who work together as a family," said Greater Media Circulation Director Rich Klypka. "Newspaper lifers, who also deliver the Star Ledger, or the Home News Tribune. It works out great for working families."

That same night, or the next morning, they throw the papers into their vehicles and head out on their rounds, expertly flicking them back out of the vehicle through an open passenger side window and skipping those who have said they don't want it.

Martin, who threw javelin and shot put in high school, can chuck papers with precision while driving around 17 mph (blinkers flashing) without ever slowing down. The only mishap she ever had was when her husband offered to do her route and cracked the side mirror with a wayward flying paper.

Martin also does an equally long route in Lincroft. Holmdel is different, she says, because she doesn't see many children playing outside. In Holmdel, she keeps an eye out for deer on Van Brackle or wild turkeys off Raleigh Court.

Delivering papers over time has given her a special perspective on the landscape. "Oh my goodness, you see so many houses for sale now," she said. "Once, in the summertime with my son, we made it a game and counted 36 signs."

As she weaved in and out of the festively decorated Richard's Way cul-de-sac, she commented that, in general, Christmas light displays have been toned down. "It used to be anything that could be lit up, was lit up"

Along Van Brackle, she noted, "You see a lot of houses that don't have their leaves off the ground. Maybe they don't have the money to pay someone, or they are leaving them to do themselves."

Like many these days, Martin says she and her husband, who works for the water company, are struggling themselves and right now can only dream of a house with a wrap-around-porch like the one she loves on Tilton Place. 

"I wish we got paid a little more, but it's not a bad job at all," she said. Martin said she figures she makes .07 cent per paper. She is paid $125 a week for 4 1/2 hours work. She is responsible for paying for her own gas and wear and tear on the tires. To supplement her income, she babysits.

Newspaper carriers are among those service people who traditionally receive tips at the holidays. In all of her years delivering papers, she's never put out a tip envelope at the holidays, she said.

"I never really had any time to think about it," she said.


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