“Citizens are reaching out to us on a weekly basis regarding their mail service here in Hailey,” Burke wrote to U.S. Postal Service Liaison Mary Ann Simpson. “While some of these may be matters of convenience, we have some citizens who receive life-saving medications via U.S. mail.”

Burke added that she hoped for a commitment from the “highest-level” USPS administrators to “expedite mail and package delivery in Hailey.”

“If there is any assistance that the City can provide, do not hesitate to call us,” she wrote.

This week, several Hailey post-office box holders told the Express that packages marked “out for delivery” by online shippers were still being held at the facility with no pickup option, that packages were still going to the wrong parcel lockers and that parcel-locker keys were dropped in the wrong P.O. boxes.

Other home-delivery customers reported empty mailboxes and front porches despite receiving USPS notifications that mail had arrived.

“I’ve still had packages be delayed or not delivered. And I’m certainly not getting mail every day,” Hailey resident Kelsie Choma told the Express. “I do know that I’m seeing mail trucks a tad bit more than before, but it’s definitely not normal in my opinion.”

Hailey Post Office customer Echo Christensen said that she received packages 22 days late in February, but things seemed to be more current this past week. She suspected that using the facility’s physical address followed by her P.O. box as a unit number—a tip from a postal employee—helped with the timeliness.

“The last thing I ordered was from Amazon. It was delivered a day before it said it was due,” she said.

Outside the post office on Thursday, one customer who asked that his name not be used in print expressed frustration that he had not received bills and holiday gifts on time.

“There’s been no communication at all. I had Christmas presents mailed in November, sitting in the back in December and they all suddenly go from ‘delivered’ to ‘returned to sender,’” he said. “I know a gal who is missing her paychecks. It’s ridiculous.”

Like Christensen, Hailey resident Kim MacPherson also thought mail delivery was becoming slightly more regular. MacPherson told the Express she recently noticed a new carrier in her neighborhood and “two new people at the counter.”

“I think it’s getting better,” she said. “They have been working hard.”

Hailey City Council President Kaz Thea agreed that residents “seem to be getting mail more frequently now,” but said many overdue packages remain unaccounted for.

“There are still items that have never been delivered. For instance, I bought a down jacket for my son for Christmas and it showed when I tracked its location that it was in the Hailey Post Office, but I still have not received it,” she told the Express this week.

Thea also said she hadn’t received a BCRD Nordic ski pass that was mailed “around Thanksgiving,” and guessed she wasn’t the only one.

“I assume there are still lots of holiday packages that have never arrived and must still be in the post office,” she said.

On Tuesday, USPS spokeswoman Kim Frum attributed the office’s longstanding delivery issues to “staffing shortages, weather, and massive package volumes during our peak season.”

“Mail volumes have returned to normal levels and, as of Feb. 27, the Hailey Post Office is current on all deliveries,” she wrote via email on Tuesday.

City Councilman Sam Linnet—speaking to the Express as an elected official, not as a spokesman for the city—questioned Frum’s claim that deliveries are current.

“I have seen no proof that is the case, and I am still hearing about mail delays for Hailey residents,” Linnet said. “Based on the significant delays and impacts on people’s ability to receive everything from medication to Christmas presents, I think residents need more than a one-sentence reassurance from the post office that the problem has been fixed.”

Thea said she thought the National Guard should have been called this winter to help meet the post office’s obligation to deliver mail at least six days per week.

Technically, the U.S. military is allowed to intervene during the “disruption of mail service on a national, regional or local basis,” according to the U.S. Northern Command, and National Guardsmen can be called upon to deliver and sort mail at post office branches during “severe” mail stoppages.

In March 1970, for example, some 150,000 postal workers went on strike across the country, activating the National Guard.

“Seems to me that would have been a good use of governmental employees’ time,” Thea said. It “was something I thought they should do, since the issue is lack of employees with so many open jobs, and unfortunately no one is applying for openings they have.”

USPS blames staff shortage on tight labor market, housing issues 

On Jan. 13—with prompting from Sen. Ron Taylor and Reps. Jack Nelsen and Ned Burns—Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson and Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch wrote to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to get to the bottom of what they called a “profound” lack of communication between employees and customers at the Hailey branch.

The Idaho delegation stated in the joint letter that constituents had been kept in the dark about their mail status for months.

In a Jan. 25 response to Crapo, Risch and Simpson, USPS Liaison Mary Ann Simpson said that mail delivery in Hailey was “expected to be current as of January 22,” and the Postal Service hoped to hire more mail carriers and reassign employees from the greater Idaho-Montana-Oregon district to Hailey.

On Tuesday, Frum said the Hailey post office is “aggressively” trying to fill open mail carrier, mail handler, and clerk positions.

A few positions have been filled recently, she said. Other employees have been “borrowed” from out of county, and more could be brought in from as far as Oregon and Montana. She noted that “borrowed” employees may not know the routes as well as regular carriers and may face difficulties finding housing.

Ultimately, the best solution is recruiting employees from within the local community, Frum said, but the local housing crunch and “higher cost of living expenses, when compared to the rest of the state” have interfered with the hiring process.

That’s true elsewhere in Idaho, she said. The state currently has “hundreds of open [USPS] positions” at the moment—a contrast to the “many industries and businesses who are downsizing or constricting their staffing.”

“These are solid jobs with the opportunity for excellent pay, full federal benefits and opportunities,” she said.

Frum referred the Express to the USPS careers website, which displayed listings for two mail carriers in Bellevue but none in Hailey.

On Thursday, she was not immediately available to comment on how many new employees were needed at the post office and whether the facility would list any open positions online.

“The Postal Service is acutely aware of the concerns in Hailey and the surrounding areas,” she wrote Tuesday. “We apologize for any inconvenience and thank our customers for their patience.”