Postal Service Update
By Edd Merritt,
January 26, 2012, page 4.....

Rumors abound, and people complain that their mail is being delayed or lost. Yet, no definitive data confirms it, and no news out of Washington or Montpelier has come forth to cite specific changes in the way mail will be handled in the near future. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders introduced the “Postal Service Protection Act” to maintain mail service to rural communities and avert cuts that he says, “could cost thousands of workers their jobs and help the Postal Service adapt to the digital age.” Last month Sanders got the Postal Service to delay closing 252 mail processing centers and 3,700 post offices throughout the country for five months. It gives the congress time to consider postal service legislation. This delay will keep the mail processing facility in White River Junction open. Its closing would cost the state 245 jobs.
Locally, the Charlotte P.O. people feel that they have not heard more complaints this year than in previous years about lost or delayed mail during the holiday season. The one noticeable change has been in the delay in filling post office boxes because of the reduction in staff. One person has had to handle the front desk and stuff boxes, causing the boxes not to be filled as early in the day as happened previously. Mail that is now being distributed through Shelburne rather than through Charlotte, as it used to be, still gets in homeowners’ boxes on the normal day of delivery.