New Postmaster Hired in Hartsdale, Delivery Remediation Sought
In efforts to remediate extreme problems with local mail delivery, Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner has met with the regional administrator of the United States Postal Service, with the inspector in charge of the United States Postal Inspection Service, with key postal service leaders from the New York area and with the Regional Director to U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and with representatives from Congresswoman Nita Lowey’s office about Postal Service operations.
Feiner reports that the Postal Service has been taking the many complaints from local residents very seriously. “They have appointed a new postmaster for the Hartsdale Post Office and have senior officials monitoring delivery,” Feiner said in a recent email. “They are training their employees better and have implemented new procedures. Mystery shoppers are stopping by at different post offices to monitor conditions. As well, local postmasters have been given more control over hiring,” Feiner continued, adding, “ I had previously suggested that they hire local residents, and they are receptive to that concept.”
Feiner believes local residents are more passionate about doing a great job for their neighbors. One of his suggestions includes supplying the Post Office with the phone numbers of residents on each postal service route. If there will be no delivery on a given day, the residents could be called and offered the option to pick up their mail. If there are problems on specific dates, Feiner says the Postal Service should let residents know what’s going on.
The recent problems in Hartsdale that resulted in several days with no delivery, were caused by an office that was not fully staffed and employees calling in sick.
A snapshot of national postal service stats shows that revenues are declining. In 2016 there were 213 billion pieces of mail delivered a year. In 2017 the numbers dropped to 149 billion, with $1.8 billion less revenue in 2017. “The Westchester regional office had a 2.5% decline in mail from 2016 to 2l017, but packages increased by 14.4% from 2016 to 2017. The growth is not in mail but in packaging,” Feiner explained.
