Mark’s Musings – Feb. 13, 2013

Mark Fortune

It was a “wild” weekend all across the county. Whether you attended the annual Chocolate Extravaganza at the Career Center, the sweetheart dance at the Lake Park Pavilion on Saturday evening, or the Wild Game dinner at the Chili Crossroads Bible Church on Sunday evening there was lots to do in our community. Perhaps you spent a quiet weekend at home, took in a movie – please support our local movie theater in the Downtowner Plaza! – or took advantage of a balmy Sunday afternoon to wash the winter road grime and salt off your car – there is always lots to do in our community.

With a slight warming trend this week, the next item on the agenda must be . . . mud!

Something besides that groundhog – take your pick – the one in PA or our very own varmint here in OH – tells me that winter is not yet gone. Hang on, spring is on the way!

And after consuming some of those chocolate treats over the weekend, I need spring so I can start getting back in shape following winter hibernation. Perhaps I should take up hockey . . .

The United States Post Office has announced plans to eliminate Saturday delivery starting this August – good idea – five years too late. Don’t underestimate the US Postal Service – think about what they do six days per week – sorting and delivering millions of packages and letters to virtually every household in America. I don’t know how they do it and they do it well. So if you are not happy with this – don’t pick on your letter carrier or the folks staffing the counter at your local post office. It’s not their decision. That came from Washington D.C. The post office lost $16 billion last year and the Saturday elimination will save $2 billion. That still leaves a lot of cash to find. Like many bureaucracies and organizations, we suggest starting at the top.

The President of the National Association of Letter Carriers said the move was disastrous and would harm small businesses. Not this one.  Just bring me my mail on Monday. The one thing this could do is create a bottleneck on Monday. No one wants to see people lose their jobs or even reduced hours. That we don’t need. Hopefully the post office can use retirements to help offset the potential job losses.

In my opinion, the carriers and those that staff and run the post offices throughout our county are wonderful people, hard workers and can be counted on to deliver mail in all kinds of weather just like their catchphrase. They are also kind, courteous and I enjoy talking to them.

Now, this is not a done deal yet. The federal government has this as part of their spending resolution that expires in March. So, nothing will be final until then. The current funding measure expires in March and would allow the Postal Service to change its delivery schedule unless Congress prohibits it in the next spending resolution. We will see.

Category: Mark's Musings