As the U.S. Postal Service explores cutting its delivery days, Eastern Connecticut residents are taking the news in stride.
“The post office doesn’t have much of a choice if they want to save money,” said Joan Haffey of Killingly. “And it’s not an inconvenience. During holidays, we only get mail five days anyway. People are used to sending e-mails now.”
Postmaster General John E. Potter last week told Congress his agency is in an “acute financial crisis,” as, among other reasons, people swap traditional mail delivery services for faster electronic means.
One of his suggestions to counter the service’s $2.8 billion net loss last year — and another possible $6 billion loss in 2009 — is cutting its delivery days to five days a week.
Rick Denomme said losing a day of personal mail was fine, but it could affect the insurance agency he runs if normal weekday delivery schedules are interrupted. If the postal service does cut its delivery days, he said he preferred they lose Saturday service.
“If they cut Tuesdays, or another day during the workweek, that could be a problem,” said Denomme, a Brooklyn resident. “A client may not be able to a get a policy cancellation notice to me, especially as some of them don’t have e-mail.”
LuAnn Goyette, who takes and receives the mail for Killingly Public School system, said she gets nearly 100 pieces of correspondence of day, with a bigger load on Mondays. She said a double stack during the week wouldn’t tie her up too much.
“If they didn’t deliver one day, it wouldn’t be that big of a deal,” she said. “It’d be like another Monday.”
The William W. Backus Hospital in Norwich typically receives more than 1,000 pieces of mail daily, spokesman Shawn Mawhiney said. He said if a truncated delivery schedule were instituted, skipping Saturday might be better for the hospital.
“Saturday’s a somewhat lighter day,” Mawhiney said. “If a holiday happens to fall on a Monday, and then there’s no mail on Tuesday, that could make for a glut the next day. It would be manageable, but not optimal.”
