Montpelier PO box holders will have to pick up mail in Barre
BARRE, Vt. (WCAX) - U.S. Postal Service officials Tuesday said Montpelier PO box holders will now need to pick up their mail at the Barre Post Office while they continue to hunt for a temporary facility closer to town.
The federal building on State Street in Montpelier was among the many damaged by floodwaters in July. Since then, the USPS has relocated to several locations to provide temporary mail pickup, most recently a parking lot off River Street in Berlin. But with the onset of cold weather, employees are no longer able to staff that mobile facility. Officials say as the hunt continues for another more convenient location in town, the Barre Post Office will be a temporary solution. They say the federal building facility isn’t expected to be ready for service again until late next year.
The Vermont congressional delegation Tuesday wrote a letter to postal officials saying the Montpelier situation has been handled poorly. “The U.S. Postal Service’s failure to secure safe and stable postal service facilities in Vermont’s capital city following the catastrophic flooding that displaced their offices on State Street, along with an unwillingness to communicate with the local Montpelier community or their own employees, is a complete and total abdication of their responsibilities and emblematic of the nationwide crisis and total failure of leadership of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy,” said the letter.
They added that the response to the July flooding also raises serious questions about the adequacy of USPS’ disaster mitigation, response, and recovery planning.
East Montpelier and other neighboring post offices have seen increased business in recent months as customers have to travel out of town to send their parcels and buy stamps.
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