Thoughts from The Editor
June 30
Sheila Harris
About 40 years ago, I worked as a temporary mail sorter for the post office in Purdy. Then, everything mailed within Purdy to be delivered to a Purdy address, stayed within Purdy. That mail was sorted directly into recipients’ boxes for next-day delivery by rural carriers or even same-day pick-up for those with post-office boxes.
It seems that’s not the case now in Purdy or anywhere else - a fact I was oblivious to until last week. However, getting confirmation of this fact turned out to be a lesson in perseverance, and not a simple one.
This pursuit started when Marty Jenkins (our publisher here at The Barry County Advertiser) was charged a late fee on the office’s water and sewer bill. He mailed the payment from the Cassville Post Office to the City of Cassville four days prior to the city’s monthly due date of the 15th.
Cassville’s exorbitant $25 late fee for water and sewer payments is bound to get anyone’s attention and rightfully so. (I’ve checked with other cities in the county and, while most of their penalties fall within the $5 to $10 range, some are based on a percentage of water usage, which typically would never achieve a $25 penalty-status.) However, I’m not here to debate the propriety of Cassville’s pricey late fee.
I’m more concerned about the reason for the alleged four-day or more delivery time of a piece of mail sent to an address within the same city.
I started locally by asking the Cassville postmaster whether mail stayed within Cassville if it was intended for a Cassville recipient. He wouldn’t answer, which took me by surprise. I didn’t realize I was asking for classified information.
Instead, he referred me up the chain to his superiors in Kansas City. I wasn’t allowed to contact them directly, though. I was instructed to leave my name and number with him and was told that his superior would call me at his convenience.
To his credit, Mark Inglett, in Strategic Communications (a portentous title, it turns out) with the USPS, called me fairly promptly. However, he told me I’d have to send him my questions by email in a bullet-point format. I did so.
Here follows the questions I asked and the replies I received:
• Is everything (that’s) mailed in Cassville to another Cassville address sorted in a hub in Springfield now? He confirmed that this was the case.
• How long ago did the policy change, and what was the rationale for it? His reply: “Many years ago, local mail was kept on site; however, as automation has continued to grow, it is much more efficient for all mail to be worked through automation to ensure timely delivery.”
I was a little surprised by this answer (although strategic, it definitely was) as efficiency and timely delivery seem to have suffered, given the example I first mentioned.
• What would be the time difference in delivery, now, as opposed to when mail stayed within a town? I received no reply to this question, other than a request for me to cite a particular case he could investigate.
• I reworded the question by asking, “What would the expectation for delivery of a (same-town) piece of mail be, that now goes through an automated hub? Next day, two days, more?
So far, no answer has been forthcoming. In other words, “Expect nothing when you drop a payment (addressed to the same town) in the mail, and just hope for the best.”
Here’s my advice to Cassville residents: to avoid the possibility of a $25 late fee, it might be a good idea to drop your Cassville water payments off in the collection box across from the police department or, better yet, hand-deliver them to the city clerk.
I feel bad about offering this advice, since I’ve grown fond of the stalwart tradition of the postal system throughout my lifetime. Like many other people, I look forward to getting my mail.
On a political note, it has been said that delays in postal service have been deliberately manufactured by Louis DeJoy, our current postmaster general, in an attempt to privatize the USPS for the financial gain of various corporate entities. It’s also been said that the delays have been orchestrated to discourage mail-in voting during an election cycle.
Perhaps there’s truth to both allegations. If so, it saddens me that one of the postal service’s basic functions of “binding the nation together” (as described in its mission statement) has been cast aside in favor of partisan interests.
My fear is that the phrase “one nation” will soon be simply a bygone, unrealistic ideal - much like next-day, same-town delivery.
Sheila Harris
About 40 years ago, I worked as a temporary mail sorter for the post office in Purdy. Then, everything mailed within Purdy to be delivered to a Purdy address, stayed within Purdy. That mail was sorted directly into recipients’ boxes for next-day delivery by rural carriers or even same-day pick-up for those with post-office boxes.
It seems that’s not the case now in Purdy or anywhere else - a fact I was oblivious to until last week. However, getting confirmation of this fact turned out to be a lesson in perseverance, and not a simple one.
This pursuit started when Marty Jenkins (our publisher here at The Barry County Advertiser) was charged a late fee on the office’s water and sewer bill. He mailed the payment from the Cassville Post Office to the City of Cassville four days prior to the city’s monthly due date of the 15th.
Cassville’s exorbitant $25 late fee for water and sewer payments is bound to get anyone’s attention and rightfully so. (I’ve checked with other cities in the county and, while most of their penalties fall within the $5 to $10 range, some are based on a percentage of water usage, which typically would never achieve a $25 penalty-status.) However, I’m not here to debate the propriety of Cassville’s pricey late fee.
I’m more concerned about the reason for the alleged four-day or more delivery time of a piece of mail sent to an address within the same city.
I started locally by asking the Cassville postmaster whether mail stayed within Cassville if it was intended for a Cassville recipient. He wouldn’t answer, which took me by surprise. I didn’t realize I was asking for classified information.
Instead, he referred me up the chain to his superiors in Kansas City. I wasn’t allowed to contact them directly, though. I was instructed to leave my name and number with him and was told that his superior would call me at his convenience.
To his credit, Mark Inglett, in Strategic Communications (a portentous title, it turns out) with the USPS, called me fairly promptly. However, he told me I’d have to send him my questions by email in a bullet-point format. I did so.
Here follows the questions I asked and the replies I received:
• Is everything (that’s) mailed in Cassville to another Cassville address sorted in a hub in Springfield now? He confirmed that this was the case.
• How long ago did the policy change, and what was the rationale for it? His reply: “Many years ago, local mail was kept on site; however, as automation has continued to grow, it is much more efficient for all mail to be worked through automation to ensure timely delivery.”
I was a little surprised by this answer (although strategic, it definitely was) as efficiency and timely delivery seem to have suffered, given the example I first mentioned.
• What would be the time difference in delivery, now, as opposed to when mail stayed within a town? I received no reply to this question, other than a request for me to cite a particular case he could investigate.
• I reworded the question by asking, “What would the expectation for delivery of a (same-town) piece of mail be, that now goes through an automated hub? Next day, two days, more?
So far, no answer has been forthcoming. In other words, “Expect nothing when you drop a payment (addressed to the same town) in the mail, and just hope for the best.”
Here’s my advice to Cassville residents: to avoid the possibility of a $25 late fee, it might be a good idea to drop your Cassville water payments off in the collection box across from the police department or, better yet, hand-deliver them to the city clerk.
I feel bad about offering this advice, since I’ve grown fond of the stalwart tradition of the postal system throughout my lifetime. Like many other people, I look forward to getting my mail.
On a political note, it has been said that delays in postal service have been deliberately manufactured by Louis DeJoy, our current postmaster general, in an attempt to privatize the USPS for the financial gain of various corporate entities. It’s also been said that the delays have been orchestrated to discourage mail-in voting during an election cycle.
Perhaps there’s truth to both allegations. If so, it saddens me that one of the postal service’s basic functions of “binding the nation together” (as described in its mission statement) has been cast aside in favor of partisan interests.
My fear is that the phrase “one nation” will soon be simply a bygone, unrealistic ideal - much like next-day, same-town delivery.