Mail crunch hits
Wednesday, December 20, 2006 10:50 AM PST
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| Jennifer Colton | Argus Observer
Payette Post Office employee Kevin Davis, New Plymouth, weighs holiday packages for Brenda Jewkes, Payette, Tuesday. This week is the busiest time of the year for post offices across the county as customers send out last minute gifts and packages for the holidays.
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Jennifer Colton | Argus Observer
Payette
Typically, the busiest day of the year for a post office is the Monday before Christmas.
This year, at least locally, that trend is holding steady as U.S. Postal Service employees reported higher than usual revenues and a surge in customers at both the Payette and Ontario offices.
“Yesterday (Monday) was one of the busiest days I've seen,” Payette Postmaster Jim Bailey said Tuesday. “I think it was more than last year.”
While percentages have not been calculated, the office has extra trucks taking packages out and staff is pushing for customers to ship priority mail, Bailey said.
“Yesterday our office here sent six or seven times the normal amount (of packages),” Bailey said. “Normally we send around four pieces of equipment out of here, and yesterday we sent probably 20 or 21. It was a huge difference.”
Business was constant Monday, with two window clerks and a line of customers out the door.
“Typically that's the big day, the one or two Mondays before,” Bailey said. “For some reason, people do their shopping on the weekend and mail the packages on Monday. Ideally, people should have had their packages shipped weeks ago, but I haven't finished my shopping yet either.”
While traffic at the Post Office was heavy, the pace of delivering has remained steady.
“The carriers so far, the last couple weeks have been busier, but not huge,” Bailey said. “I'm expecting here in the next couple of days for that to pick up too. Our biggest delivery day will probably be Thursday or Friday.
People ship things Monday or Tuesday and they're going to start arriving Thursday or Friday.”
This week, the Payette Post Office will also start a redelivery, delivering “anything that looks like a Christmas present” twice a day, trying to get all presents out before the end of the week.
“The last thing you want is a lot of Christmas presents sitting in here on Monday,” Bailey said. “We'll try to be ready for anything this week. If you're shipping in the Northwest, you can probably ship (today), but if you're going back east, you're probably too late.”
In Ontario, post office traffic Monday was even heavier than expected, Ontario Postmaster Alan Schuster said.
“Yesterday was our busiest day of the year,” Schuster said Tuesday. “It was nationwide, and it was here in Ontario. Yesterday we did three times the amount of a normal weekday.”
The Ontario Post Office usually runs two windows, but Monday kept four open all day. So far this holiday season, revenues at the Ontario office are up 15 percent.
“Yesterday (Monday) was 19 percent, that's a big increase,” Schuster said. “We were hoping to stay the same as last year, we had no idea it would be that big. We had employees here at 5 o'clock in the morning, and we had employees here at 5 o'clock last night.”
Schuster said he expected the office to remain busy through Tuesday and then to drop off.
“If they haven't mailed by now, it's getting down to the crunch. About the only way they're going to get it there now is express mail or priority mail. But every package will be delivered. Carriers do not go home without delivering all their packages.”
Cody W. Ables wrote on May 16, 2008 11:04 PM:
Here is something that we should all read. This is a letter from an angry woman in New Jersey regarding the War in Iraq and all of the war’s negative publicity. Pay attention.
'Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?
Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?
Did nearly three-thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?
And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was 'desecrated' when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet?...Well, I don't. I don't care at all.
I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I'll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia .
I'll care when these thugs tell the world they are sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.
I'll care when the cowardly so-called 'insurgents' in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.
When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured: I don't care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank: I don't care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed 'special' food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being 'mishandled,' you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts: I don't care.
Sooner or later, it'll get to the people responsible for this ridiculous behavior!
If you don't agree, then by all means quit reading. Should you choose to do so, then please don't complain when more atrocities committed by radical Muslims happen here in our great Country! And may I add:
'Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the Marines don't have that problem' -- Ronald Reagan
I have another quote that I would like to add
'If we ever forget that we're One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under.' Also by.. Ronald Reagan
One last thought for the day:
In case we find ourselves starting to believe all the Anti-American sentiment and negativity, we should remember England 's Prime Minister Tony Blair's words during a recent interview. When asked by one of his Parliament members why he believes so much in America , he said: 'A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in.. And how many want out.'
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:
1. Jesus Christ
2. The American G. I.
Important for us all!!!!
One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.
MANY SEEM TO FORGET BOTH OF THEM. AMEN!’
I hope you take this woman’s viewpoint into consideration. It closely parallels my own. As I begin my journey in becoming a soldier of the greatest country in the world, hearing this woman’s words sets my heart at ease. It is warming to know that there are people in this great country who still care about those men and women who have no choice.
Cody W. Ables
U.S. Air Force Academy 2012
"