What if our local post office is the last bastion of all that is worthy of the "Next Station to Heaven" moniker? Despite the ever-growing lines and the staff cutbacks, our friends at the post office are genuinely happy to serve our community. Veronica, Jeff, Mike and Nancy recognize residents and local business people by face, and often by name. It is indeed a small town institution. A place to run into friends, strike up a conversation with a stranger and exchange a smile.
Remember when we dared to complain about long lines back in the days of four service windows? Although there are now less employees at the counter, they try not to take it personally when impatient customers huff and puff. However long the line grows, especially after a weekend or postal holiday, they keep calm and carry on. Regardless of the policies requiring you to fill out all paperwork and prepare packages in advance, our friends at the post office still advise us how to send our mail efficiently and let us cut back to the front of the line when we are ready. They collect pre-paid packages and pick up notices and manage other requests that do not require payment in order to keep the line moving quickly.
We owe it to them to return the favor. It is our duty to save our post office. Not just by finding a new location, but by keeping the aspects of our post office that we know and love. How can we maintain at least three retail transaction windows? What locale can accommodate enough walk-in traffic, parking and drop boxes to bring in the revenues needed to justify a post office in a village this size?
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We spend so much energy fighting change – especially when the status quo is working just fine. Please don’t wait for someone else to speak up on behalf of our post office. If you (like most New Canaanites) enjoy sending and receiving mail and packages, don’t sit idly by while our post office as we know it is in the lurch. Add your voice to my plea, write your own letter (Attn: Joseph J. Mulvey, U. S. Postal Service, 2 Congress St., Room 8, Milford, MA 01757-9998), start a petition. Together, we can get this wrapped up neatly with a love stamp on top – preferably in time for the holiday rush.
