Post Offices get busiest as Christmas approaches
The three post offices in Mineral County are feeling the uptick of the holiday season. For Superior, the outside drop off box remains out of commission so patrons need to be careful in their parking lot of the ice when going inside to mail anything until it’s repaired or replaced. (Monte Turner/Mineral Independent)
As of Nov. 29 at 3:34 p.m., the United States Postal Service reported that 1,975,595,333 packages and mail have already been accepted nationwide for this holiday season.
According to the USPS, the postal service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation: 160 million residences, businesses and Post Office boxes. The postal service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With more than 34,000 retail locations and one of the most frequently visited websites in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual operating revenue of more than $71 billion and delivers 48 percent of the world’s mail. With more than 630,000 employees, we are one of the nation’s largest employers. And we have one of the world’s largest computer networks.
It goes without saying that this is their hectic season. A busy time for everyone but more mail is sent from households than any other time of the year. Locally, there are three post offices with separate zip codes in Mineral County that are on the front line and feel the intensity picking up.
The convenience of a drop off box at the Superior Post Office has been interrupted since the middle of October after a truck/trailer slid into it. Residents thought this would be a short setback as parking the vehicle and going into the building was inconvenient, but now it has become dangerous.
Ice and snow in their well plowed parking area have caused some older postal patrons to have some scary slips, having to go inside just to drop off a bill to the dentist and now their Christmas cards.
Kevin Pollock is the postmaster and was unavailable for comment while the employees did not have any answers on to when the mailbox would be repaired or replaced. This discrepancy is written up every day at closing, but they know nothing more than it still hasn’t been addressed.
For this Christmas season, the USPS requires that any international material be mailed by Dec. 6. First class packages and mail must be in their office by Dec. 17 and priority mail has until Dec. 19. Many newly designed Forever Stamps for the Christmas Season have been created and boxes or envelopes are fully stocked in each post office.