USPS Is Suspending Services in These Places, Starting Today
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It’s easy to believe your local post office will always be there when you need it. But the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) may have no choice but to suspend services at your go-to facility under any number of circumstances, like severe weather, lease issues, or safety hazards. These closures are often only temporary, but that’s not always the case. In fact, postal customers in different states are facing new post office closures—and one will have permanent consequences. Read on to find out more about the latest closures, which start today.
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Residents in Longport, New Jersey, no longer have a local Postal Service facility to call home. The Longport Post Office is marked as permanently closed on Google, and a recent news report from Downbeach.com also confirmed the closure.
In a July 31 local press release , the USPS announced that services at the facility had been impacted “due to an expired lease and subsequent building sale.”
A majority of post offices across the U.S. are not actually owned by the Postal Service. Instead, more than 25,300 of the agency’s facilities are leased out. In terms of the Longport Post Office, realtor Matt Vassallo of Compass Real Estate told Downbeach.com that the owner of the building decided not to renew the facility’s lease, because they are trying to sell the property.
“It closed on Saturday, but today is the final day of the lease,” Vassallo told the outlet.
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As a result of the lease expiring, the USPS has decided to relocate the Longport Post Office’s services. Starting Aug. 1, all retail operations will be moved to the Margate Post Office in Margate City, New Jersey, the Postal Service confirmed in its release. P.O. Box services will also move to the Margate facility, which is located about two miles away.
“P.O. Box mail for Longport Post Office customers will be delivered seamlessly to new boxes at Margate Post Office,” the USPS said. “Customers should present their old P.O. Box key along with valid identification to pick up mail at the Margate Post Office.”
When Best Life reached out to the USPS to see if there are plans to find a new location for the Longport Post Office, spokesperson Xavier Hernandez said that “postal officials are reviewing local options.”
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Some Raleigh, North Carolina residents will also be unable to access their local post office later this week. But unlike the Longport Post Office closure, this suspension is only set to last a few days.
According to a July 28 update to the USPS Service Alerts website, the Century Finance Station in Raleigh will be “temporarily closed” starting Aug. 3. The post office is expected to be shuttered to customers through Aug. 5 because of repairs.
“During this closure, retail and PO Box services will be available at the Capital Station,” the Postal Service said in its alert.
Also in Raleigh, the Capital Station facility is located less than a mile away from the Century Finance Station post office.
Best Life reached out to the USPS to find out more information about this closure, and we will update this story with their response.
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Postal customers in New Jersey and North Carolina are hardly the only ones dealing with service disruptions right now.
Early last month, severe flooding in Vermont pushed the USPS to temporarily close several facilities across the state. And on July 27, the Postal Service sent out a new alert to inform residents that a post office in Montpelier is still shuttered as result.
“We’re hoping to reoccupy the Montpelier facility as quickly as feasible,” USPS spokesperson Stephen Doherty previously told Best Life . “However it did suffer extensive damage from recent flooding and there is no timetable established as yet.”
Prior to this, the agency also suspended services at facilities in Indiana and Ohio. The Wheeler Post Office in Indiana has been closed temporarily “for building repairs,” which USPS spokesperson Desai Abdul-Razzaaq told Best Life were prompted by plumbing issues in the building.
And in Ohio, the agency closed both the Prospect Post Office and Commercial Point Post Office because their leases had expired.
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/local-releases/nj/2023/0731-longport-to-margate-po-service-impacts.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/who/legal/foia/leased-facilities.htm
- Source: https://about.usps.com/newsroom/service-alerts/residential/welcome.htm
See a Sticker on Your Mailbox? Don’t Touch It, USPS Says
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Your mailbox serves a very simple purpose: receiving mail and leaving outgoing mail for a carrier to pick up. Still, some of us enjoy sprucing up our mailboxes, adding personal flair, color, or even decals to help an otherwise standard mailbox stand out. But if you notice a paw print sticker on your mailbox that you didn’t add, don’t start peeling it off just yet—it’s likely part of a program run by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to help keep carriers safe. Read on to find out what these stickers mean and why you shouldn’t remove them.
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In 2023, more than 5,800 Postal Service workers were attacked by dogs while delivering mail, up from 5,300 in 2022, according to a USPS press release.
Larger cities had the highest numbers of attacks, with Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cleveland claiming the top five spots.
“Even though a customer’s dog is friendly to most people, it can always have a bad day,” said letter carrier Tara Snyder . “I know, from experience, even when a dog is in the house, customers need to make sure their door is secure so their dog can’t push it open and bite the letter carrier.”
To her point, the USPS writes that “all dogs can bite, even those perceived as nonaggressive.” In fact, many of the attacks that letter carriers report are by dogs whose owners told them, “My dog won’t bite.”
Such an attack can result in consequences for the homeowner, too. According to data from the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost per insurance claim for a dog bite is $64,555, the USPS states.
“When a postal employee suffers an injury, the owner could be responsible for medical bills, lost wages, uniform replacement costs, and pain and suffering for the employee,” they explain.
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To combat dog bites, the Postal Service shared tips on how pet owners can “support safe mail delivery.” These include keeping dogs inside the house or behind a fence, away from the door or in another room, or on a leash.
“Pet owners also should remind children not to take mail directly from a letter carrier as the dog may view the carrier as a threat to the child,” they state.
Mail carriers also follow protocol to keep them aware of areas where dogs might be present, and they’re equipped with scanners to remind them of possible dog hazards, as well as dog warning cards that are added during mail sorting.
In 2020, the USPS added another preventive measure: the PAWS Program . First introduced in Pennsylvania, the program uses mailbox stickers to keep carriers safe.
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The PAWS Program uses color-coded stickers affixed to mailboxes to inform mail carriers about dogs in the area. An orange sticker with a black paw print tells carriers that there is a dog at this home, while a yellow sticker with a black paw print tells them there is a dog at the next house.
Citizens are informed ahead of time that the stickers may appear on their mailboxes. In a notice sent to Lakewood, Ohio, residents, the Postal Service wrote, “Carriers will soon be placing a paw sticker on mailboxes to indicate that a dog or dogs live in the area —yellow indicates dog nearby/orange indicates dog at residence. The sticker will act as a reminder to the carrier that they should proceed with caution, especially when delivering packages to the door.”
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Removing these stickers may do more harm than good, as your mail service can be halted if your carrier feels unsafe. Not only does this affect the home of the dog owner, but it also applies to the entire neighborhood, the USPS said in a previous press release . Service isn’t restored in these instances “until the aggressive dog is properly restrained.”
At the end of the day, these stickers are put in place to “reduce the risk of dog bites and attacks that occur while delivering mail,” which is just another reason you should leave the sticker on your mailbox.
“We all love our dogs,” Kimberly Tilley , acting postmaster for Winston-Salem, told WGHP. “We love our animals, but we … have to take responsibility to protect the carrier and the people around us as well from our animals.”
Tilley added that dog bites are more common than you think, and they can be traumatic for carriers. “Once a carrier has been bit, it sets some fear in them long term for the rest of their life,” she told the outlet.
However, although these stickers are strongly recommended, if you object to having a sticker placed on your mailbox, you can opt out , Kyle Stevens , Southwest Carrier Annex station manager in South Dakota, told KELO in 2021. To do so, the first step would be to contact your local post office.
This story has been updated to include additional entries, fact-checking, and copy-editing.
