by Cassandra Hemenway, republished with permission from The Montpelier Bridge
Montpelier’s post office has been unreliable, and the problem isn’t going away. Postal employees aren’t talking, but frustrated residents missing their mail certainly are.
Attempts to reach Postmaster Douglas Powell have gone unanswered. The Bridge has called him nearly a dozen times at two different numbers, with no response. Efforts to contact a regional manager have also hit a dead end.
And about those postmasters — Powell is the fifteenth since 2010 and the eleventh since 2020, according to the USPS website. That year alone saw four.
No official explanation has been given for why mail is running one to two weeks late, but residents have taken to social media and Front Porch Forum to speculate and to share their frustrations. Off-the-record sources say the Montpelier post office is operating with about half the letter carriers it needs to keep up.
The post office is attempting to add personnel in central Vermont. A Feb. 18 search for jobs at the USPS website found that the organization is seeking to hire carriers in Montpelier, East Montpelier, Barre, and South Barre, among other locations.
For now, packages, at least, seem to be arriving more reliably, thanks to help from carriers from other towns. But letter mail? That’s coming whenever the remaining Montpelier carriers can manage.
Residents Speak Out
Some residents are suffering, having long counted on regular postal service.
“I depend on mail,” said Kjiirt (pronounced “Kurt”) Jenson of Jay Street. “I still mail cards and letters. I get checks and tax info in the mail. And there’s no delivery.”
Jenson said he waited so long for an important piece of mail that his housemate eventually went to the Berlin sorting center and picked it up in person.
Lydia Lowery Busler of Pleasantview Street had the opposite problem: her outgoing mail sat in her mailbox for nearly a week with the flag up.
“It needed to get there by Feb. 1,” she said. “It sat there since Friday.”
She posted about it in the Montpelier Area Friends Facebook group and later said, “If the post office is this unsupported, something is going on.”
Busler said she filed a complaint on the USPS website at 8 p.m. one evening and, 12 hours later, got a call from a USPS representative in Portland, Maine.
“He was friendly,” Busler said. “He said they’ve had a lot of complaints about this post office. He also said there’s one person working inside the post office and that a carrier was injured.”
Businesses and Organizations Feel the Impact
Tim Beavin, owner of B-Hive Industries on River Street, has relied on the Montpelier post office for 26 years for his internet sales. Over the past month, he’s made about $40,000 in eBay sales, requiring 600 shipments, he said.
“But a small business like mine with outgoing shipments is not as important (as) making sure the Amazon orders get delivered,” Beavin said. When he spoke to The Bridge, he was expecting to deliver over 100 parcels on Feb. 18. It will be a tricky endeavor, he pointed out, because despite the number of his packages, “I usually have to bring (them) to the sad temporary retail counter with bad parking and no loading docks” on East State Street.
Beavin also noted that his letter mail, like many others in town, is severely delayed. “I just got two letters from the city of Montpelier that took 13 days to reach River Street,” he said.
The issue isn’t just affecting residents and businesses, it’s also disrupting essential services. Amanda Hannigan, who works at the Vermont State Housing Authority, says mail delays are impacting the Section 8 rental-assistance program.
“My work has definitely experienced some recent challenges regarding mail delivery for our Section 8 participants,” she said. “Since I began working with this program about a year ago, we have depended on reliable mail delivery to adhere to our paperwork processing deadlines.”
That reliability, she said, has declined noticeably in recent months.
“What used to be a steady daily receipt of mail has now become quite erratic. For example, last Friday, we received a small delivery, but we were informed that we should not expect any mail next week due to our carrier’s upcoming vacation, with no coverage to fill in during that time.”
She added, “This situation is starting to affect our ability to process applications efficiently and communicate effectively with participants. I don’t know what the larger issue at play is, but it is certainly becoming disruptive to our community.”
What You Can Do
If your mail is delayed, here are a few workarounds:
Sending? Use blue postal mailboxes — These are handled separately from local carriers and may be more reliable in Montpelier right now.
Expecting mail? Visit the Berlin sorting center — If you’re waiting for important mail, you can visit the USPS sorting center at the Central Vermont Marketplace (formerly the Berlin Mall). It’s next to Five Below, with a small sign on the door. The best time to go is between 9:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
File a complaint at usa.gov/postal-service-complaints.
Busler, for one, is adjusting her expectations.
“I’m going to be on top of it and not expect anything,” she said. “It’s better to send things by email or messages.”
For now, Montpelierites are left hoping for long-term improvements — and checking and rechecking their mailboxes.
The author of this article is the editor of the Montpelier Bridge, the twice-monthly community newspaper for Montpelier and surrounding communities. Original article found here: Montpelier’s Post Office Is Struggling — And Residents Are Feeling It – The Montpelier Bridge