A liaison for the U.S. Postal Service said the federal agency will prioritize hiring mail carriers and will loan employees to the Hailey Post Office to address the staffing shortages that have hamstrung the facility—and crippled mail delivery in the city—since the fall.
The letter to DeJoy, dated Jan. 13, came after “local and state officials” reached out to the Idaho delegation for information. All three District 26 state legislators—Sen. Ron Taylor, who lives in Hailey, Rep. Jack Nelson and Rep. Ned Burns—previously told the Express that they had appealed to the federal lawmakers to intervene.
“While we understand that the United States Postal Service (USPS) is under immense strain due to lack of carriers and supply shortages, constituents in Hailey have been unable to receive consistent deliveries or even pick up their mail from the Post Office,” reads the initial letter, which Nelsen shared with the Express. “While the Hailey Post Office has hired two new mail carriers, a profound lack of communication has left residents in the dark about the status of their mail.”
Postal Service leadership plans to focus on hiring more mail carriers and loaning employees from the service’s greater Idaho-Montana-Oregon district to the Hailey Post Office, Mary Ann Simpson said.
Simpson added that she couldn’t estimate when operations would return to normal—something the Idaho lawmakers hoped to learn from DeJoy.
“In the interim, employees and are being loaned to the Hailey Post office from other areas whenever possible,” she said in a statement. “Despite our best efforts to provide timely mail delivery service every day to every address, there have been occasions when a delivery route could not be completed because of a staffing issue.”
Although the district plans to loan more employees to the Hailey Post Office, Simpson said overall staff shortages and difficulty retaining employees have throttled the Postal Service nationwide.
“Like many other parts of the country, the Postal Service has experienced employee availability issues due to personnel shortages,” Simpson said in her response. “These shortages have led to inconsistent service. Moreover, an already tight labor market has complicated the hiring process, making it difficult to find and retain employees.”
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@ Perry Boyd Oh Elon,
1. It was the locals who made this place, not you.
2. We were doing perfectly fine until people like you showed up, telling us how much better you can make it.
3. We did stop the stupid stuff, but the “stupids” had two things we didn’t: time and money. We pack a council meeting to shut down a project, but they bide their time, repackage it, bring a team of attorneys, architects, engineers, and pack the place with their peeps, over and over until they win by attrition.
All hale Elon Boyle who has arrived on his white horse to save us from this dystopian hellhole we have created. Ya know, if you think this place is such a crap pile, you’re welcome to go back to where you came from.
Perry you should make a post-it of this and look at it before you put a finger to your key board.
No attribution, no quotation marks for what you copied and then pasted as if these were your thoughts and words rather than giving credit to the original post.
I do agree that it was worth repeating though …
Copied from a post below by SV Native.
Sounds like they have adopted the motto of some of the local businesses: "I don't know and I don't care."
Time to let Amazon or Fed Ex to take over and run the Post Office as a business. Not a money pit that gets nothing done or are totally inept at what they do.
If Amazon or FedEx ran the post office we'd be introduced to the pleasure of paying 10 times the current postage rate to send a birthday card to our grandkids. FedEx can cherry pick higher value shipments and charge accordingly. Most of my Amazon orders are sent USPS because the USPS shipment rates are so low compared to UPS or FedEx. I, for one, want to see the US Post Office shored up, not dismantled. Like water, sewer, police and fire, basic public services are essential. I like home delivery mail service because it prevents thousands to pollution spewing, time wasting trips to the post office.
Boy, the Hailey team seems much more effective at solving its residents' problems than the Ketchum team. The Ketchum Council has had multiple conversations about the illegal charging for post boxes in Ketchum, but has achieved zero for the people of Ketchum. Maybe they are too busy speaking with NYT reporters to promote more tourism in Ketchum.
Really? You obviously do not live and use the Hailey Post Office. I for one have had nothing but problems. Lost mail, parcels in wrong box, other people's mail in my box. Parcel delivered and you get it three-four days later. Parking lot is dangerous, seems the P.O. is paying for removal, but not getting their (our) monies worth. And it is not only me, but also others that I have talked to having the same issues. Just to name a few problems, watch out for the ice dam on the North side of the building.
Kevin
Perry the know everything does not care about the Hailey Post office. He uses articles as a vehicle to slam Ketchum leadership. His vendetta is getting old
I could no agree with you more that it’s getting old. Unfortunately, we are stick with them for three more years. You will note that I slam the IME, too, for not doing its job to expose them and how they are making living in Ketchum worse while making a few people rich.
Boyle, I thought you were solving the housing crisis, or was it the energy crisis, or the treatment plant crisis, or was it the highway and traffic problems? You are like a micro-Elon; Ketchum is the new Twitter.
@native, who is going to clean up the mess you “natives” have made of the WRV? You had the power to stop the stupid stuff. Why didn’t you? The last smart thing was the hillside ordinance and that was a generation ago. We all are reaping what you have sown. I’m no Elon and I don’t do Twitter, but I do pay attention by going to public meetings. The current residents’ interests are not important to the elected officials. They constantly act in the interests of the real estate industry and out of town developers. Why?
“They constantly act in the interests of the real estate industry and out of town developers.”
i.e. The Wealthy … much is being done out of greed at the expense of the whole valley.
“who is going to clean up the mess you “natives” have made of the WRV? You had the power to stop the stupid stuff. Why didn’t you?”
Oh Elon,
1. It was the locals who made this place, not you.
2. We were doing perfectly fine until people like you showed up, telling us how much better you can make it.
3. We did stop the stupid stuff, but the “stupids” had two things we didn’t: time and money. We pack a council meeting to shut down a project, but they bide their time, repackage it, bring a team of attorneys, architects, engineers, and pack the place with their peeps, over and over until they win by attrition.
All hale Elon Boyle who has arrived on his white horse to save us from this dystopian hellhole we have created. Ya know, if you think this place is such a crap pile, you’re welcome to go back to where you came from.
I’m not trying to minimize how bad it is there. But at least your city hall engaged our DC reps to try to fix it.
SVNat #3=Friedman Memorial Freaking Airport
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