Postal Shortages Impact Community Members and Businesses

The United States Postal Service (USPS) is vital to a commu­nity, delivering bills, prescription medicine, business supplies, and other needed items. Not to mention Christ­mas gifts and letters to Grandma! The “largest physical and logistical infrastructure of any non-military govern­ment institution”, ac­cording to the United States Postal Service’s website, the postal ser­vice has been a perma­nent part of the Feder­al Government since 1792.

Despite the hard work of mail carriers, Silver Bay and oth­er communities have been experiencing issues recently with postal delivery. Some Silver Bay residents have only received the North Shore Journal, a weekly publication, once or twice a month, making it hard to get to community events and celebrate the achieve­ments of community members. Businesses rely on its publication and delivery to ad­vertise their services along with community members staying up to date on current events and news.

“On other locals’ Facebook posts, I’ve seen a lot about people needing mail for work, sending out bills and paychecks to clients and employees, things are delayed and caus­ing issues. Medicare recipients are delayed in getting their new Medicare cards. Also, getting the [North Shore] Journal days after it’s supposed to come, means not see­ing all of the local ac­tivities and fundraisers until after they have happened,” Silver Bay resident Halie Robin­son commented.

Another resident, Jenny Bjerken, took to Facebook with her concerns. “I know it’s the holidays, I know the post office has four ‘help wanted’ signs up between their door and the counter. I know they have more than they can handle with mail and Amazon de­livery and whatever else.” Bjerken contin­ued. “But that doesn’t make me any less con­cerned. I run a busi­ness from my home. I have not gotten my North Shore Journal four or five times in the last two months.” Later in the post she expressed her concern that if she wasn’t re­ceiving the Journal, what else wasn’t she receiving? “I feel bad complaining,” Bjerken admitted. “If they told me my mail would be every other day, fine. I would know what to expect.”

Barb Hron posted that her notifications say there are two pack­ages and 15 pieces of mail that should have been delivered. Ash­ley Belanger, a local business owner, also posted about the mail delays impacting her clients’ ability to re­ceive bills and her staff from getting paid.

Silver Bay isn’t the only community af­fected by the mail shortages. Duluth res­idents have reported mail being delayed, and United States Sen­ators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after Rochester citi­zens went four or more days without mail de­livery.

“Letter carriers, es­pecially in rural areas, work extremely hard to make deliveries on time, especially around the holidays. But with­out support from dis­trict management and the Postmaster Gener­al in Washington, their jobs go from difficult to nearly impossible,” Senator Smith said. “These new reports only confirm what we’ve already been hearing, which is that USPS leadership is not doing enough to support their workers and deliver mail on time. The Postmas­ter General needs to take accountability for service issues and do something about it.”

“Minnesotans rely on the Postal Service to deliver their prescrip­tions, Social Security checks, and more, and they need and deserve timely service,” Sen­ator Klobuchar add­ed. “We have heard reports of mail being delayed for four days or more in Rochester. That’s why Sen. Smith and I are calling on Postmaster General DeJoy to address these issues, ensuring that Rochester and the rest of Minnesota’s resi­dents receive reliable service.”

The comments section under Barb Hron’s post offered some ideas to perhaps solve the mail issues. “Because of the rapid­ly declining efficiency of the USPS, the entire system will probably be improved by pri­vatization,” one com­menter said. Another agreed, saying, “The whole state and coun­try is having issues with the USPS. Might need to be privatized.” One comments post featured a laughing emoji and said, “It’s everywhere I think! Elon needs to step in and take over.”

Other ideas were also raised, with com­menters asking if the post office qualified for part time flex car­riers. “No one is upset with our hard working postal workers,” Ha­lie Robinson stated. “More with the lack of effort for a solution from city, state, and federal representa­tives.” She listed a few alternative mail deliv­ery ideas: installing new post office boxes, going to a curb bank system, or street mail­boxes.

As we approach the New Year, we can continue reaching out to local and state representatives to seek a solution to mail delivery in 2025. If you are interested in picking up some hours and helping your community through this time, stop by the post office or look for a job application online.

As Jane Austen said in Emma, “The post-office is a won­derful establishment! The regularity and dispatch of it! If one thinks of all that it has to do, and all that it does so well, it is real­ly astonishing!”

Merry Christmas to the US Postal Workers! Thank you for being a lifeline from point A to us. The sound of the mailbox shutting each day brings the excite­ment of Winthrop in The Music Man, “… it could be something special just for me!”.