Friday, January 30, 2009

Postal Deliveries, and Your Trustees At Work

Neighbors, for the record i wandered down on behalf of the Village Green Homeowners Association to the Granville Post Office today (Friday, Jan. 30).

I spoke to John, our friendly and attentive postmaster for the village. I shared with him our profound appreciation for the effort the mail carrier on our route puts into helping us build community in Village Green, helping us meet one another by going forth of an evening to re-deliver mail to our neighbors, to whom it was originally addressed.

Along with this, i pointed out how many of my own family and neighbors who, while not enamoured of the Internet and online bill paying or account management, have been given that last impetus towards learning how to do so, due to the erratic and even rare arrival of bills and statements in print form at our mailboxes (or arriving long after original delivery as sheepish neighbors realize they've had bills from a block over on the mantlepiece for a month and more).

So if their business model says discouraging use of the US Postal Service for financial transactions is a good idea, who are we to object? Good luck with that, i said . . .

But today, in every mailbox in the neighborhood, after three brutal days of persistent snowfall and snowplow piles re-occurring at all hours near and before our mailboxes, we receive a note. Whether a careful cut out has been crafted from the snow and ice, or two weeks of accumulation are untouched, each and all got the same chastising note from the USPS, informing us that we may have delivery suspended if we do not meet obscure and unclear guidelines for access. If this had only gone to those of us who shoveled slowly if at all, or were just a day behind the plow piles with pick and spudbar, or if this had arrived Monday after an extended period of mailbox neglect, it would have made sense.

When everyone got one, it seemed as if . . . well, i left it to our postmaster to fill in imaginatively what it seemed like to us. He informed me gravely that these concerns would be communicated directly to his supervisor in Newark, who oversees the motor carriers. I asked (politely) if perhaps this had to do with a policy that says you cannot skip a hard to reach mailbox until you give written notice, and on this supposition he could not say; again, he expressed his regret that we had all, innocent and guilty (i had made it clear i was at least mildly guilty, myself), been "put on notice," and repeated that the issue would be raised "at the highest levels," which i assume means in the Oval Office.

I considered pointing out that "no longer delivering mail to this address" didn't actually constitute a threat, under the general circumstances, but thought that a bit much and so said "Thank you," shook the good man's hand, and bid him a good weekend.

He offers all of you the same!

See you next Saturday at Bryn Du (see preceding post), unless i have your mail to drop off. If you have any of mine, we'll have the chili on by 6 pm on Sunday for the Steelers game . . . i think they call it something else on TV.

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