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The Weekly News Source for Wyoming's Ranchers, Farmers and AgriBusiness Community

It’s Broken – Help Us

by Wyoming Livestock Roundup

     As Americans, we have been fortunate to have many freedoms and privileges, including some we may take for granted until they don’t work well. In today’s world we find that our nation’s postal system is broken. The price we pay for their service is also increasing, so we are getting jabbed in the eye twice, maybe more.

   During the last couple of months, we have received numerous complaints from you, our readers, especially from western Wyoming because the Roundup isn’t showing up in your mailbox until a week or later after its print date. As I understand it, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) changed its standards on newspapers, allowing them to take from one to nine days to deliver a newspaper. That change really affected us as a publisher of a weekly newspaper.

We want you to know we are aware of the problem, and we are trying to get it fixed. But I also now realize that trying to get a problem fixed in the USPS is kind of like sitting on a merry-go-round on all the horses and animals.  So far, we have visited with most of the local offices with no answers or solutions, so we are moving to the regional and national level and we need your help.

We all know the USPS is in trouble financially. For the most part, they have to live by the rules that Congress places on them, and some of those rules are really causing trouble. For many years, we all heard that if you got a job at the USPS, you were fixed for life. These days, that may not be the case, as I’m hearing that they are hiring without benefits for some positions. It shows. 

The main issue here is that the USPS has been shutting down the facilities at post offices where they sort newspapers and other periodicals. For those in the western part of the state, your Roundup goes to Cheyenne from Casper. Then it is delivered to Salt Lake City, Rock Springs and finally to your local post office before it hits your mailbox.  

Despite the players involved, we are actively looking for a solution to our USPS problems. We’ve been talking to our local post office but not getting very far. Our next step has been to contact and visit with people in the Denver, Colo. USPS center who deal with Colorado and Wyoming’s service. On the national level, Senator Mike Enzi’s office is a great place to call to give a heads up on our issues with the post office, but one could call any of the congressional offices in the state to tell them of our issues with the post office. Maybe if we all start calling or emailing, we could get our mail service back to normal.   

There is a new national postmaster, and we hear she is open to trying to improve service. The one she replaced just told everyone he didn’t care, and we’re glad he is gone.   

To submit comments or complaints about your postal service – including comments that your Roundup is coming late, the best avenue to take is to visit the USPS website – usps.com/help/contact-us.htm. This link will take you to the right form to submit your comments, and they say they will get back within three days after comments are submitted. 

We’re poking a stick at a big windmill, but hopefully we can get something done with your help. 

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