You will find this hard to believe–or maybe you won’t find this hard to believe–but the United States Postal Service is slowing down mail delivery. Intentionally.
Mail delivery for many Americans started slowing Friday, as part of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s blueprint for overhauling the U.S. Postal Service in order to slash costs. But critics–and let’s all raise our hands if we fit that description when it comes to the postal service–say the slower delivery standards could cause problems such as late bill delivery while more broadly undermining the public’s faith in the USPS.
And, really, delivery will get so slow that many more Americans will join the stampede of folks who have stopped using the mail USPS for most of its needs. In other words, this move seems like a bad idea for business, from a USPS viewpoint.
Yes, starting last Friday, Oct. 1, the postal service’s current three-day delivery standard for first-class mail – letters, bills, tax documents and such – dropped to delivery anywhere within the U.S. within five days. In other words, Americans should now expect that letters and other mail could take up to five days to reach their destinations. Plan accordingly.
The newest change shouldn’t affect local delivery, they say, which means your local delivery will continue to be as slow as it was before. I’m sure you long ago noticed that if you’re in Platte City and drop a letter in the mail headed to anyone else in Platte City it will take two days to get there. It does not get there the next day like it used to back in the good ol’ days.
Experts who have studied up on the USPS’s latest change to service say almost four of 10 pieces of first-class mail will see slower delivery. That “means mail delivery will be slower than in the 1970s,” said Paul Steidler, senior fellow at the Lexington Institute and an expert on the postal service. Steidler also refers to the postal service’s new plan as “disastrous,” so we’ve got that to look forward to.
By the way, have you noticed the Platte City Post Office doesn’t even offer a trash can in its lobby anymore? I guess they’re trying to tell us “take that junk mail we put in your mailbox and go throw it away somewhere else.”
It’s a good thing the folks who used to print a “shopper” and send it unsolicited to your box have apparently stopped distributing that junk mail. So many people were tossing that thing in the post office trash can it often caused an overflow. If trash cans could read that shopper would have been a smashing success.
Guy Speckman wins again. He tied for first this week in Landmark Pickem, making Speckman a winner in two of the first four weeks of the NFL picks contest you can play at plattecountylandmark.com.
The guy is on a heater. I bet he’s celebrating with a Bud Light or 30. He’ll soon be heading to Vegas to bet parlays with more legs than a spider.
So the FBI is moving its Kansas City field office to Platte County. A shorter drive to Parkville City Hall for investigators.
Parkville Mayor Nan Johnston announced at a board of aldermen meeting Tuesday night that Joe Parente, city administrator, is retiring in March. The announcement was made at a meeting in which Parente was not present, as it was indicated he was out of town at a professional meeting. Perhaps related, perhaps not, prior to the open meeting Tuesday night there was a closed door executive session for personnel reasons.
Parente came to Parkville with a checkered background in the handling of public records at a previous place of employment (Google his name for the story, it’s in the public domain). And open records problems have plagued the City of Parkville during his time. It’s important that we don’t conveniently overlook that. But you wouldn’t expect anyone at City Hall to talk about problems on the night his “retirement” is announced. Mayor Nan sure didn’t. All is rosy and good, according to Nan.
“Joe has spent 40 years in the city and county management profession and is being recognized at the International City Managers Association. That experience has gotten us to where we are today,” Nan said, and I don’t think she was referring to a $195,000 payoff by the city to make an open records lawsuit go away, the largest Sunshine lawsuit settlement in the history of Missouri.
“Joe has given notice of his retirement effective March 2022. He has given us a lot of notice. In fact he notified me several months ago that he would be retiring. So he has given us plenty of time. And, in usual Joe fashion, is setting everything up for us to roll right into the next one,” the mayor said.
“We have had a lot of growth in his time here. We’ve had a lot of development projects. He has solved some of our pressing financial issues, especially with the NID (Neighborhood Improvement District) out west, so he is leaving us in a very good position. I want to say how much I’ve appreciated his leadership here,” Nan gushed. None of the aldermen added a word.
“We will begin to look for Joe’s replacement right away,” Johnston added.
Her last sentence is interesting and perhaps unintentionally revealing. If Joe really told her “several months” ago of his imminent retirement, why has the city waited until now to begin the process of searching for a replacement? A productive search could take plenty of time, especially for a city that has been making statewide–in some cases national–news for all the wrong reasons.
Seems odd. Platte City, for instance, is getting about 20 months advance notice of its next need for a new administrator.
What I’m not so subtly hinting at is there’s a lot going on at Parkville City Hall that is not yet common knowledge. What is known is that the city recently hired a criminal defense attorney for as-of-yet undisclosed reasons. We’ll keep you posted.
Hey, remember way back in March when we told you the Vegas oddsmakers had established the over/under on the Royals’ season win total at 74 and I encouraged you to take the under? Guess how many wins the Royals ended with when the 162-game regular season ended Sunday? If you said 74, you are correct.
Nothing gained, nothing lost on that recommendation. And a salute to the oddsmakers for hitting the nail squarely on the head.
(You can find Ivan Foley longing for a return of the trash can in the local post office. Email ivan@plattecountylandmark.com)
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