An Albany resident says he received mail on Saturday. But before then, he hadn’t gotten a delivery in about a week. The resident is one of a number of locals reporting delivery issues.
Dennis Silber said his partner was the first one to notice they weren’t getting mail at their Rose Court home.
“She encountered the postman one day when we were getting some mail and she said ‘what’s going on,’ and all he said was ‘it’s a mess down there.’” Silber said.
Silber, 76, and his partner aren’t the only ones in the Albany area raising concerns about mail delivery delays.
A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko’s office said in a statement: “our office has received a number of complaints concerning non-delivery of mail here in our Capital Region.
People are discussing the issue online, as well. There are at least two threads on Reddit where people are discussing mail delays in Albany.
Silber says his neighbors have been dealing with similar problems.
“I’m retired now, so most days I would see the postal truck parked and we know out postman and he just wasn’t showing up,” Silber said.
He decided to call the post office.
“And all I got was a, she told me that I would be getting mail that day after I told her where I lived, of course we didn’t, but we got it the next day and I said ‘what’s going on with the mail,’ and she said ‘we’re shorthanded.’” Silber said.
When WAMC reached out to a United States Postal Service spokesperson for a comment regarding mail delivery in several ZIP codes in the Albany area, Mark Lawrence, a strategic communications specialist with USPS, said in a statement that service can “occasionally be disrupted.”
Lawrence said delivery times can be disrupted “due to employee availability for reasons such as illness, personal leave, retirements and more that may impact mail deliveries on some routes.”
Lawrence also said USPS will authorize overtime, expand the times that mail is being delivered and hire additional full-time and seasonal personnel to ensure deliveries continue. The spokesperson declined a request for an on-the-record interview and did not specifically respond to inquiries about whether mail delivery is actually being delayed in Albany.
Tonko’s office is blaming the Trump administration. Jonah Cohen, a spokesperson for the 20th District Democrat, said in a statement: “These ongoing issues are a direct result of the failure of USPS leadership to provide resources, staffing, and logistical support our letter carriers need to fulfill their vital mission.”
Reports of delayed mail follow former Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s March 13 letter to Congress, announcing plans to reduce the USPS workforce by 10,000 through a voluntary early retirement program.
In July, David Steiner took over as postmaster general.
As for Silber, he wonders why the issue isn’t being talked about more.
“It just struck me strange, as how, not getting the mail every day after living a lifetime when not getting mail was the exception and I was struck by the lack of information or coverage of what seemed to me an important story,” Silber said.
