Jean Canter has been experiencing mail delivery delays since September. She said at the worst point, she and her husband didn’t get mail for a week at their home, located just off of Crow Road, west of Eugene.
Now, she says it’s coming every other day.
To test the system following an earlier story on mail delivery woes, KLCC recently sent a small package to the Canters from the Southside branch of the Eugene Post Office. It took three days to get there, not far outside the two-day timeframe that the postal service promises for local mail delivery. But, Canter said, it’s the hour that the mail was delivered that astounds her.
“We have cameras looking out to the front of our house because we like to watch the deer," she said. "Anyway, I looked to see, ‘Oh when did this come?’ So, I went back in time.”
Rewinding the video, Canter didn’t see any mail trucks from the day before up until midnight. At that point, she said the electricity went out for five hours, so the cameras weren’t working. The power was restored at 5 a.m. on Friday. So, Canter looked at the footage.
“From 5 a.m. until 10 a.m., when I went and got the mail, no trucks came either," she said. "So sometime between midnight and 5 a.m. is when that stuff must have been delivered.”
Canter said she’s received no explanations nor notifications from the U.S. Postal Service about any new mail delivery schedules. Instead, she said she gets her information and updates from involved neighbors and even some letter carriers posting on the Crow Community Facebook page.
"I cracked up because several people that were posting on Facebook said, 'It's not like they haven't had 250 years to get this figured out,'" Canter laughed.
Some residents who made formal complaints did receive a letter in late October from the Westside Post Office apologizing for any inconveniences caused by delays in mail delivery. The letter also cites staffing as the biggest obstacle and said that “carriers are getting mail out any chance they can, including on Sundays.”
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden has gotten involved. In a statement to KLCC he said, "The residents of Crow Road deserve quality mail delivery throughout the year for medications, bills, checks and more. And this public service takes on special importance in the weeks ahead as all Oregonians count on reliability to mail and receive holiday cards and packages in a timely fashion," Wyden stated. "I'll keep pressing the Postal Service to provide added permanent staffing for this Crow Road route so these Oregonians have mail delivery they can depend upon."
KLCC tried to speak with the Eugene postmaster about what is being done locally to fix the mail delivery problem, but a request for an interview was rejected by a Seattle-based spokesperson for the U.S. Postal Service.
The USPS did tell KLCC that between October and November, six rural carriers have been hired in the Eugene area. Pay levels are negotiated at a national level and are the same throughout the country. For a rural carrier, pay starts at $20.38 per hour, paid bi-weekly.
Meanwhile, the peak postal season is approaching rapidly. Canter, who has family in California, plans to get a bigger jump on sending holiday gifts by U.S. Mail. “I usually send packages and get them out by the middle of December," she said. "But, I’m gonna try harder to do it way sooner because I’m a little concerned.”
And regarding the letter carriers who are out delivering mail in the wee, dark hours of the morning?
"They’re trying their best," Canter said.
