Postal service makes do with skeleton crew

I am sympathetic to Karl Lenhof’s frustration (“When will our mail service return? April 15), about his broken community mailbox and its repair. As an employee in the maintenance department of the Fresno Processing and Distribution Center, I see how the system works from the inside.

There are two box mechanics in Fresno who service Fresno, Clovis and Madera, up to Oakhurst and down to small communities like Parlier and Reedley. Every apartment and community box in these cities has a lock and key owned by the U.S. Postal Service that needs to be replaced by these two men every time people move or loses their keys. They have to install the boxes in new developments and maintain all the collection boxes everywhere.

I hear everyone thinking, “Why don’t they hire more people?” It’s the government, no money in the budget, yada, yada, yada.

I feel his pain.

This story was originally published April 20, 2016 at 9:55 AM with the headline "Postal service makes do with skeleton crew."