SPOKANE, Wash — A Spokane neighborhood is feeling frustration because of ongoing delays with their mail delivery.
Terri Pederson has lived in the Muirfield neighborhood on the South Hill of Spokane for more than 30 years. She said mail deliveries have become more sporadic over the past few months.
But, during the first week of July, she and the rest of the neighborhood didn't get any mail for about a week. Then, this past Sunday, Pederson found out from one of her neighbors that mail had been delivered late Saturday night.
“I received so much mail it barely fit in the box,” Pederson said.
In the pile of mail were two checks she'd been waiting on for her business.
“I had reached out to one of my customers because she said she had mailed the check and she said she had mailed it on the first and it's always the check's in the mail," Pederson said. "But, it was because it came from Liberty Lake and it took 10 days to get here."
Pederson said when she and other neighbors spoke with the United States Post Office on Regal about the issue, staff there reportedly told them it was because of a lack of employees.
"They said they were going to have packages delivered by a different person," Pederson said. "And they were focusing on packages. And they could not tell us when we would get regular mail delivery.”
USPS Manager of Strategic Communications for the WestPac area David Rupert sent a statement to KREM 2 about the delay:
“We are aggressively hiring city carriers, rural carriers and clerks to stabilize our workforce. These are great jobs that can quickly lead to career opportunities with full benefits, including paid annual and sick leave, holiday pay, health care, retirement, and other benefits.
Last week, over the holiday weekend, both Sunday and Monday were non-delivery days. The mail volume to be delivered in the following days often exceeded the number of available delivery hours. As a result, we couldn’t reach some homes and businesses, but we delivered them the next day.
This week, we’ve been able to resume regular mail delivery.
Due to continued staffing issues, there may be days in the future when a customer does not receive mail, but we are rotating employees and assignments so they will get mail the following day. We apologize for any inconvenience this causes to area customers.“
USPS is trying to hire more people. If you’re interested in applying, go to usps.com/careers.
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