BOYERS, PA - The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) marked the 50^th anniversary of its Retirement Operations Center located in Boyers, Pennsylvania. OPM Director John Berry attended ceremonies at the center celebrating 50 years of providing retirement, life and health insurance services to Federal employees, retired workers and their families.

"The work of the Retirement Operations Center at Boyers guarantees that our Federal government continues to operate efficiently and effectively for the American people," said OPM Director John Berry, who spoke at a ceremony marking the 50^th anniversary of the Center. "Many people don't realize that the majority of Federal employees work outside the Beltway in neighborhoods like the ones in Boyers. For fifty years, this Center has provided service that is both excellent and extraordinary. From places like this in western Pennsylvania, the Office of Personnel Management continues to ensure that the Federal workforce is prepared and able to carry out the work of the American public."

On Friday, June 24, the Retirement Operations Center hosted a celebratory event to recognize original staff and past Directors of the installation, present years of service awards and reflect on 50 years of accomplishment by OPM employees.   The celebration came as OPM welcomed Bill Zielinski as the new Associate Director of Retirement and Benefits. Zielinski comes to OPM from the Social Security Administration. Zielinski is a seasoned executive as well with over 20 years of outstanding service, having held myriad and wide-ranging positions at the Social Security Administration (SSA). 

"I'm proud to joint his team because Federal workers across our government appreciate the hard work of OPM employees on behalf of their retirement and benefits system," said Zielinski. "The work that we do is effective and impactful, and that is one reason we celebrate the accomplishments of the Retirement Operations Center at Boyers."

In 1958, the General Services Administration was tasked with locating 30,000 square feet of space to house all Civil Service Retirement files in an effort to relocate the records retention from the Old Pension Building in Washington DC.  Various locations were considered and inspected by GSA - a warehouse in Richmond, Virginia; an office building in Syracuse, New York; and an underground limestone mine in western Pennsylvania.  The low cost of space rental, a secure environment, and ideal climatic conditions for paper documents combined to make the limestone mine a prudent choice. Therefore, in June 1960, the Bureau of Retirement, Insurance and Occupational Health (BRIOH) set up operations as the Civil Service Commission's records retention office in Boyers.