While searching old issues of The SUN recently, we found an editorial that serves as a perfect example that history often repeats itself, and the issues we face are often cyclical.
Following is an editorial that ran in The SUN in 1967:
“Mail service into Pagosa Springs from the east has deteriorated so badly in recent months that it is almost a joke. If it was not for the fact that such poor service creates a hardship, the service would be laughable.
“In the years in the past mail service was generally very good to Pagosa Springs and excellent much of the time. Since that time postage rates have gone up, the inconvenience of zip coding with no improvement of service has been added, and in return for this we have worse service.
“The schedules and routes are not set up by the local postal employees. Maybe they should be because it is evident that whoever sets them up has no conception of distances, terrain, or good service.
“It is possible something can be done to improve this service. Persons having complains about it, or those who have unreasonable delays in mail, should send a letter to our Congressman, or the Town Board, County Commissioners, Chamber of Commerce, or to the postmaster. Such tactics may not do much good with a government bureau but it will serve warning that we are not unaware of the slip shod manner in which mail reaches Pagosa Springs.”
Much of what was penned in 1967 feels very applicable today — rates continue to go up, routes continue to be changed and make seemingly little sense, and it feels like service continues to deteriorate.
We at The SUN continue to pay more and more to send The SUN to subscribers, and continue to have more and more problems, with subscribers not receiving what we’ve mailed to them.
Adding to all of it is the fact that our local, hardworking postal employees could almost certainly use much more help to meet the area’s needs.
We’re not sure how the financial stability of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) in 1967 compares to the issues it is facing now, but the history page on the USPS website does acknowledge the cost savings of cluster boxes, introduced in 1967, and other types of mail receptacles: “As of March 1, 1923, mail slots or receptacles were required for delivery service. By the 1930s, as a convenience to customers living on the outskirts of cities, city letter carriers began delivering to customers with ‘suitable boxes at the curb line.’ Increasing suburbanization in the ensuing decades brought an increase in the use of curbside boxes, which carriers serve from motor vehicles. In recent decades, the use of cluster boxes, introduced in 1967, has been increasingly encouraged as they are cheaper to service. In the early 1990s it was estimated that, compared to door-to-door delivery, curbside boxes were about 30 percent cheaper, while cluster boxes were about 40 percent cheaper.”
While we’re not sure reaching out to local public bodies will help make much headway (though we know at least one local elected official has spoken with the nation’s postmaster general), we urge residents to continue filing complaints with the USPS and our congressional representatives.
Randi Pierce
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