Editorial

Monday evening, I left my day job in Tacoma at the usual time, 5:30 p.m. I managed to have luck with traffic stops and signals and reached the Spanaway Post office in time to check my Post Office Box. Since I had been on vacation last week, it was important to see what had been waiting for me.

I reached the door of the Post Office at 6:10 p.m. and pushed. The door was locked! Now I know full well, the Post Office advertises it is open until 6:15 p.m. Historically, I have also had conversations with at least three of the past Spanaway Post Masters about the practice of closing early. I really don’t care for the excuses that they can lock up that early. Shift work is something many of us do, you can too.

The South Hill and Graham Post Offices allow 24 hour a day access to patrons Post Office boxes. Describing the practice of locking the post office as discriminatory against my community and writing to Senator Patty Murray and the Seattle Postmaster with a letter signed by the entire board of the community association (2001) didn’t help convince the local folks to let us get longer access to our mail boxes. We were told we should get up early to check our boxes, even though the days mail isn’t guaranteed to be there until 10:30 a.m.

Enter the additional new edict that you cannot ping the will-call windows except between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. Many of us who take the bus to Seattle to work leave before 6 a.m. and arrive home after the Post Office is closed. So much for making the U.S. Mail accessible. Hopefully, you can still get your package on Saturday or have a retired friend at church who can help out.

In summary,  Spanaway is seriously shortchanged by it Postal Service. That’s me saying it nicely. I (which also includes Elk Plain’s poorly named “Bethel Station”)

If I felt demanding better service would help, I would do that. If I felt writing again to Senator Murray and the Postmaster General would work, I would do that. Seriously nothing will probably work. There a several of us who wish letting them know what we really think wasn’t a Federal Offense. Yes, some of us are really that mad at all of you. I’m sure some of those working at Spanaway are nice people, but overall, your delivery of mail delivery takes longer than if I mail letter somewhere else. I have had numerous packages appear opened prior to delivery and even lost items mailed from a secure facility at military base to my P.O. Box. At the window, they didn’t even care to give me the time of day about it. It was my birthday card from my granddaughters that was missing.

No, I’m sorry Spanaway Post office, you simply don’t cut it. If you say 6:15 p.m., mean it. I don’t care to rush home from work to get my anxiously awaited mail and see the smiling faces of your worker heading home 5 or 10 minutes early. Nope, don’t like it at all. Maybe we can convince South Hill/Puyallup to do a take over?