Mill Spring resident Stan Mazur said he’s had quite a bit of trouble getting his usual mailings on time from the post office.
Mazur complained that his Costco coupons recently arrived the day after they expired, and on one day he received three late issues of what should be a weekly magazine.
Mazur said he called the Columbus Post Office, which now coordinates all of the carriers for Mill Spring mail, and said they blamed it on a national problem.
Scott Smith, at the Columbus Post Office, said a national problem is exactly the issue.
“It’s happening with our plant facilities in terms of when they send the mail to us,” Smith said. “They’re trying to change the networks within the postal system – that’s something that has been talked about nationally.”
According to Smith and national media reports in early December, the service has also filed to change one-day delivery to a two- or three-day delivery as early as this spring, in order to avoid bankruptcy. The postal service has also made plans to try to close many smaller offices.
Mazur said he and his wife didn’t notice a problem until after the mail was rerouted to the Columbus Post Office instead of through the Mill Spring Office.
In June 2011, the Polk County Board of Commissioners approved a resolution in favor of keeping the Mill Spring post office open even though the United States Postal Service said it had no plans of closing the location. The Polk County Board of Commissioners approved the resolution in response to more than 1,500 residents signing a petition with the same aim.
At the same June BOC meeting, Judy Arledge said Mill Spring area residents wanted to keep their post office full service. She said 1,629 deliveries were made daily and carriers at the time drove 230 miles in making those drops.
As an avid stamp collector, Mazur said he purposely pays his bills and sends other correspondence through the mail in an effort to support the postal system.
“If they are complaining about losing customers, why are they messing with good customers?” Mazur said. “I don’t recall ever having this problem before.”
The Mill Spring Post Office serves the areas of Mill Spring, Sunny View/Coopers Gap, Pea Ridge and White Oak. It was established in 1871.