Bennington and Pownal residents are complaining about erratic mail service.
Bennington resident Vicky Printz told VTDigger that she did not receive any mail from July 6 until Wednesday, Aug. 11, when delivery resumed.
Kathy Wangenecht, who lives in North Bennington, said she did not receive mail for a week. The U.S. Postal Service told Amazon that a walker tray she was expecting could not be delivered because her mailbox was inaccessible, she said.
“It’s on an open front porch with an unfenced yard,” she wrote in an email to VTDigger.
Wangenecht said she finally received a huge stack of mail Wednesday but still no walker tray.
When Pownal resident Roy Mattison went to the Bennington Post Office last Friday to find out about the delays, he said he was told that a route driver was on vacation and the Postal Service had no plans to replace him.
Mattison, in a Facebook message to VTDigger, said he was also told that several positions remain open and that the Postal Service is waiting for applicants. He said Postmaster John Harwood IV was not available when he asked to speak to him at the Bennington Post Office.
North Pownal resident James Garner says when he moved there, he put out a mailbox and never received any mail. Garner said he found out that mail destined for him was being returned to the sender. He said he went to the Bennington Post Office, which oversees Pownal deliveries. There, he said, Harwood told him mail would not be delivered if he used the North Pownal ZIP code and that he would only receive his mail if he used the Pownal ZIP code.
“I have to use 05261,” he said. “North Pownal is 05260. If you have a mailbox, you cannot use the North Pownal ZIP code.”
Garner said he did not get any mail last week. As a result, he said, he did not get the wheels he needed for a power jack he used to move a new pipe-bending machine for his sink and faucet business. He said he had to make wheels.
Other businesses said they have not been having any problems.
When reached by phone, an employee at Bennington Potters, who declined to identify herself, said the business uses FedEx to ship orders.
A spokesperson for Bennington College said neither its admissions office nor its institutional advancement office, which raises contributions to the college, have had any problems receiving mail. She said the graphic designer, who sends out bulk mailings, has not had any problems either.
For four years now, every two weeks or so, neither Garner nor his neighbor receives any mail for a day or two, he said.
Garner said his mail carrier told him that when he goes on vacation, the postmaster does not cover his route.
Garner said the mail carrier has had a heavier workload since the pandemic began.
“I think Amazon is adding a lot of fuel to the fire,” he said. “Everybody’s in the middle of nowhere and now we’re buying every single thing from Amazon, and the mailman’s got to bring all that.”
Garner said he has seen his mail carrier out at 8 p.m. putting Amazon packages in mailboxes.
No one answered the phone when VTDigger called the Bennington Post Office Wednesday and Thursday.
Harwood did not respond to an email requesting an explanation for the erratic delivery.
“This has been an extraordinary year of unprecedented challenges, given the Covid-19 pandemic, and we continue to experience challenges with employee availability,” Steve Doherty, a Boston spokesperson for the Postal Service, wrote to VTDigger in an email. “As a result, staffing is impacted and we thank our customers for their understanding and continued support.”
Postal Service employees have been working overtime. Workers from other communities across Vermont are being pulled in to help, and the Postal Service has been hiring aggressively, Doherty said.
The Postal Service website lists 29 openings across Vermont, though none in Bennington or Pownal.
Doherty said the Postal Service is training some new employees, which he said should alleviate the shortage of workers. In the interim, he said, customers may see their mail arrive later than usual in the day because carriers are unfamiliar with their territory.
Burlington and Pownal are not the only towns to have had problems with mail this summer. Montpelier residents also complained about inconsistent mail delivery.
“We have missed several days’ worth of mail, including checks and, most importantly, a letter from our daughter who is away at summer camp,” Leane Rexford wrote VTDigger in an email on July 19. “My husband went to the post office several times to try and figure out where our mail was, to no avail.”
At the time, Rexford said she was told the postmaster was out for a solid month, “and the schedule has gone to hell because of that.”
“Some neighborhoods are simply not receiving mail delivery several days out of the week,” she said. “I’m certain this isn’t the fault of the mail carriers.”
Rexford wrote Wednesday that, for the past three weeks, normal mail delivery has resumed.
When VTDigger emailed Montpelier Postmaster Janie Beltran on July 19, asking if she was able to hire all the mail carriers she needed, Doherty responded.
“We’re in the process of an aggressive hiring cycle,” Doherty wrote. “Fortunately, for Vermonters, unemployment is relatively low for the state at this time so, yes, we are having trouble fulfilling all our hiring needs.
“Thanks to the incredible dedication of our employees, we’re typically able to move people to where the need is and fill temporary gaps in staffing to ensure that all mail gets delivered in a timely fashion. You may see your mail later in the day due to a carrier unfamiliar with the territory, but there are no widespread delays at this time.”
Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Vicky Printz’s name.
Read the story on VTDigger here: Bennington and Pownal residents complain of erratic mail delivery.