A month after lawmakers’ letter, North Coast mail problems still have no USPS answer
The post office in downtown Astoria. Photo: Another Believer, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Four weeks after Oregon’s congressional delegation gave the U.S. Postal Service 14 days to explain why mail keeps going missing in Astoria, the agency still hasn’t answered, and businesses downtown say the problem hasn’t gone away.
Business owners and government offices in downtown Astoria have gone months without regular mail delivery, and residents in Warrenton and Gearhart are reporting their own problems, OPB’s “Think Out Loud” reported Tuesday in a segment with Astorian reporter Fox Perez. Local officials’ attempts to sit down with Astoria postal management have gone nowhere, and the Oct. 13 letter from Rep. Suzanne Bonamici and Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley to Postmaster General David Steiner has not received a reply, according to the program.
What the delegation asked for
The letter said Astoria City Hall, the Clatsop County government and several downtown businesses, all within a few blocks of the post office, were getting mail irregularly or not at all. It said payments mailed to the city were arriving late or not arriving, and that the post office would not hold mail for city staff to pick up. The lawmakers also noted reports that Amazon packages, which USPS delivers in Astoria, were still showing up on time.
They asked USPS to say in writing when downtown Astoria and local governments would get regular service; when Warrenton, which has been waiting years for a new post office location, would get one, and who the city should call for updates; why so many Gearhart residents can’t get mail at their homes; and why some Rainier residents inside city limits aren’t on a delivery route. They also asked USPS to meet with elected officials in Clatsop and Columbia counties and to hold a public information session within 60 days, a window that closes in mid-December.
Bonamici went to the Astoria Post Office in person on Oct. 15 and asked to speak with the postmaster. The request was turned down, according to the delegation.
Why it matters for business
For small businesses, the mail is still how a lot of money moves. Customer checks, vendor invoices, tax notices and licensing paperwork arrive by post, and a week’s delay can mean late fees or a missed deadline. Some readers have been walking into The Astorian’s office to pick up papers that never reached their mailboxes, the paper reported in October. Nonprofits have felt it too: the Assistance League of the Columbia Pacific told the paper that donations to its post office box were being returned as undeliverable during its fall fundraising drive.
USPS said in a statement to The Astorian at the time that it was aware of concerns about downtown delivery, including along Duane Street, and had adjusted downtown routes. It cited “local staffing fluctuations” among the conditions it works around. The agency’s Office of Inspector General told the paper it opened an audit on July 22 and had identified delayed mail as an issue in the region.
A former Astoria carrier told the paper that carriers were working 10- to 12-hour shifts, six days a week. The staffing strain follows the Postal Service’s 2025 plan to shed 10,000 positions nationally.
Gearhart and Warrenton
Gearhart’s problem is different. The town’s contract postal unit closed Feb. 27, and since then roughly half of residents have had to drive to the Seaside post office for their mail, according to the delegation letter and a September update from City Administrator Chad Sweet. USPS has offered cluster mailboxes if the city can find a site, but the count has grown from about 300 compartments to as many as 950, and the city says it owns little land that could hold a facility that size. The city is also looking at smaller neighborhood clusters. Sweet noted that residents who live on an existing carrier route can ask USPS for home delivery instead of keeping a box in Seaside.
In Warrenton, the city has spent years trying to learn where USPS plans to put a new post office. When it asks USPS, it gets sent to a third-party contractor, and the contractor sends it back to USPS, the letter said.
What to do if your mail is missing
Residents and businesses can file a report through USPS’s online help portal or by calling 1-800-ASK-USPS. Bonamici’s office has also asked people to report delivery problems to its district office so it can pass them on to the agency.
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