The Heights Post Office is open again after closures at the retail window over the holiday weekend. The closures were due to a non-COVID staffing shortage, Town officials said Tuesday.
Frustrated patrons were greeted by signs that provide little in the way of explanation for why the retail window at the post office was closed Saturday, and open only briefly on Monday.
The lobby remained open, with access to PO boxes. And on Saturday, a postal worker was distributing packages to patrons who’d received yellow delivery cards. On Monday, the retail window was open 11AM to 1PM.
At the Town’s weekly emergency update on Tuesday, Supervisor Gerry Siller said the closures were due to staffing issues. One employee was sick another was on vacation, he said, noting the illness was not COVID-19 related.
“Expect disruptions in service at the Post Office,” Shelter Island Police Chief James Read said at the meeting. “It’s not something that we as a community can’t handle.”
USPS statement
A regional spokesperson for the USPS provided a statement that gave no explanation for what was behind the closures.
“While we do not share personnel information publicly, I can confirm that our workforce, like others, is not immune to the human impacts of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic,” Xavier C. Hernandez, a USPS communications specialist, said in an email to the Gazette on Monday.
“We understand that the Postal Service plays an important role in this community and we are committed to advancing the mail in the most regular and safe way possible,” he said.
“We continue flexing our available resources to match the workload and we are proud of the efforts of postal employees across New York, and the nation, as they define essential public service every day.”
He also forwarded a statement, originally posted on the USPS website on April 2, that outlines steps the service is taking to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. You can read that statement here.
“We appreciate the patience of our customers, the support of our community leaders, and the efforts of employees as conditions change on a day-to-day basis,” Hernandez said.
