POST OFFICE BLUES By David G. Hanger February 03, 2014
It is now the 14th month since we were assured by the postmaster there would be a replacement in short order for the downtown post office. There were reportedly more than a dozen applicants, all deemed unacceptable, so are we just being shined on, or are we just being lied to? This is the town that is six blocks high and 50 miles long. A trip from south of town to the main post office is a round trip of almost 40 miles, all on two-lane roads, so basically a two hour project. From downtown it consumes an hour, which means I lose $200 to $300 in productivity daily just to check the damned mail. Your lies or your deceptions are costing me a lot of money, postmaster, and I fundamentally resent that. We need a downtown post office, not yesterday, but in January 2013, and we damn sure need one now. Next, I recently learn that Ketchikan’s mail is now being sorted in Juneau. What the hell? The Juneau postal overlord is strengthening his operation by logrolling our local postmaster, while leaving us to wither on the vine? I mailed a couple bills to Ketchikan two days before I left San Antonio on January 8. I arrived in K-town on January 19, and the two bills I sent up by mail arrived several days later. Apparently, the new policy for us is a 19th century delivery schedule of weeks instead of days. Then there is the experience of visiting the main post office. The postal clerks are nice enough, but when there are 20 people in line, and there are two clerks, one of whom is dealing with someone’s immigration matter (or whatever) that will require a minimum of 45 minutes to complete, there is no effort to get more clerks on line. The public, who pays your salaries, are left in queue sitting on their thumbs, while, according to reports from highly reliable sources, the backroom workgroup does everything in their power to ignore the front room workgroup because they can’t stand each other. Now I don’t care really what the dysfunction is, but dysfunction beyond doubt it is, and whether managerial or otherwise this performance is not what we pay for, and it is unacceptable. Finally, there is the question of stock-outs and lack of services. You don’t have any stamped envelopes? You don’t do metered mail? You seem to be out of everything, and your solution to all is to refer everyone to the Ward Cove Post Office. What is that all about? If you don’t want to do the job, quit. If you can’t do the job, quit. We do not need a deadhead operation; we need a competitive operation that timely contributes to local business and family concerns. It is not what we are getting now, and that is unacceptable. We pay your salaries, and if you wish to persist in being this indolent, it is time for some major changes. David G. Hanger
Received February 03, 2014 - Published February 03, 2014 Related:
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