Staffing and Workload Prove Challenging
By Dana Dugan
Once upon a time in the Wood River Valley, all mail was placed into numbered mailboxes at each of the Valley’s post offices. Residents were numbers, not houses. With the increase in population, the post offices were enlarged, and home delivery was instated in some areas of the Valley. In Hailey and Bellevue, mailboxes sprung up along rural and city streets.
But in Hailey, home delivery has become spotty. Some weeks, mail may only be delivered once a week. Getting ahold of the postmaster for comment has proved difficult, as Ken Quigley is out delivering mail as well as doing his other duties.
On Saturday, Dec. 24, nearly 20 people waited inside the post office, despite it being closed, waiting to see if they could retrieve packages from the people working inside. Some had been there for two hours. I found Quigley working the loading dock, where at least four vehicles were being loaded with boxes to be delivered that day.
“We have hired new employees; we have a couple in training, but it takes time,” Quigley said. “We’re spacing it out so some days we just deliver packages. We’ve had people come in from Twin Falls, from Blackfoot, to come and help. Right now, I have a postmaster in there helping to sort packages. Our mail volume has increased tremendously. That’s new. But there’s a dire need everywhere. There’s a general shortage of workers. Business owners all over say the same. It’s lack of housing.”
It’s not only here. Reports of bad mail service is nationwide. In McCall, the post office couldn’t open on time. The list of complaints on the USPS website is long and varied.
But when contacted for a statement, the USPS referred this writer to Lecia Hall, of Plano, Texas, who said everything was fine.
“Idaho is a big state and we strongly disagree with the general presumption of a lack of service,” wrote the USPS Idaho media spokesperson, in response to an email. “The Hailey employees are working with what they have.
“Occasionally, we won’t be able to deliver to a neighborhood on a given day due to temporary staffing or workload challenges, especially during our peak season and inclement weather. But we always rotate the carriers so that neighborhood is given priority the next day, so no one goes more than two days without delivery.”
Hailey resident Randy Johnson, owner of SunCondos property management, said this has been going on for at least six months. He posted a photo of a mailbox on Facebook marketplace with this comment:
“This [mailbox] used to receive Hailey, Idaho, US Mail but currently is nonfunctioning. I am good with tools and can typically fix anything, but this apparently requires some special government tools that I do not have access to. I am selling [the mailbox] ‘as is.’ Do not expect this to function as intended. It can be used as a lawn decoration, bird house or possibly for storage of smaller items. Cash or Venmo only… no payments can be sent via US Mail.”
Johnson’s post received many comments relaying other people’s difficulties, several from other parts of the country.
“The mail in my box was never picked up,” Johnson said. “It was a regular occurrence. I had closed my post office box in Ketchum in October with forwarding to my home in Hailey. I have never received any forwarded mail. Clients say they’ve sent checks, but none of them have been delivered.”
On Dec. 9, Johnson went to the Hailey Post Office and asked that his mail be held for him to pick up in person. He went in several times but there was never mail for him.
On Thursday, Dec. 22, Johnson went to the Hailey Post Office for the sixth time. He said he refused to leave until he got his mail.
“It took a while, but I got Ken to sort the mail himself and he did find some checks,” Johnson said. “I have never received my tax documents.”
Johnson said he reached out to Hailey Mayor Martha Burke, State Rep. Ned Burns, and Linda Culver at Rep. Mike Simpson’s office in Twin Falls.
Burns helped get several helpers to come from Twin Falls one day earlier this month to help.
On Friday, Dec. 23, there was a steady amount of people gathering at the Hailey Post Office. Many people received notices to pick up boxes in person. Others picked up rubber-banded piles of mail. A resident of Old Hailey, on the east side of downtown, hadn’t received mail in five days. Jennifer Jones, a counter clerk, said she feels like it’s ruining Christmas for people but there’s nothing they can do when they are short-handed.
Compounding the problems, more and more people seem to be shopping online through such corporations as Amazon.
As the holidays come and go, the ability for the Hailey Post Office and others to catch up with the volume of mail and packages should regulate.
“The Postal Service sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience our Hailey customers may experience and we appreciate their patience,” Hall said, after a fourth email to request explanation.
In 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act, which mandates the USPS deliver the mail six days a week.