{"id":31530,"date":"2023-09-22T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hesperus-marvel-post-offices-still-plagued-by-service-issues\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:42:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:42:47","slug":"hesperus-marvel-post-offices-still-plagued-by-service-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/hesperus-marvel-post-offices-still-plagued-by-service-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Hesperus, Marvel post offices still plagued by service issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Hesperus post office has been the source of repeated complaints by area residents, who say their mail is delivered weeks or even months late. (Reuben Schafir\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Reuben M. Schafir<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Years have passed since residents of Marvel and Hesperus began to raise concerns about the inconsistent service of the U.S. Postal Service in their rural communities. But there has been little improvement, they say, despite complaints that have reached the ears of the state\u2019s congressional delegation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in the process of building a home and we come up and we work on that in the summers, and the goal is to be here full time,\u201d said Kline resident Laura Lamb. \u201cBut at this point, we\u2019re kind of starting to question whether or not that\u2019s a reality because of the mail issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lamb has experienced a litany of problems with the post office since moving to the area in 2021.<\/p>\n

And she is not alone.<\/p>\n

An aide to Sen. Michael Bennet said there was a notable increase in the number of complaints about post offices across the state in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the past three years, we saw elevated constituent concerns from La Plata County residents \u2013 those that either use the Hesperus or Marvel offices or receive mail from those offices,\u201d the aide said.<\/p>\n

Amenities are sparse on the western side of La Plata County. There is little in the way of infrastructure, many roads are unpaved and water flowing from the sink is not a given.<\/p>\n

Residents there rely on the postal system for deliveries critical to their businesses or livelihood.<\/p>\n

Staffing problems caused by low pay left a gap in the system.<\/p>\n

The Hesperus and Marvel post offices operate under the management of the Durango office. In an email to The Durango Herald,<\/em> a spokesman confirmed that the USPS is looking to hire <\/a>close to a dozen employees to staff the three offices.<\/p>\n

Depending on the position, the hourly wage ranges from $19.94 to $22.13.<\/p>\n

But some residents say that the problems are not just because of inadequate staffing, but allege that they are personal.<\/p>\n

In Lamb\u2019s case, she said one particular employee was the cause of her problems. Lamb said that the employee, whose first name is Nancy, gave her a hard time when she tried to arrange mail delivery to her new home. Eventually, Lamb gave up on delivery and rented a post office box. But the mail still got returned as undeliverable, or simply disappeared.<\/p>\n

Lamb\u2019s troubles did not end there.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we confronted her and then filed a complaint about her, then she drilled out the lock to our post office box, re-keyed it and didn\u2019t give us the key, so we couldn\u2019t get into our post office box,\u201d Lamb said.<\/p>\n

The USPS spokesman did not comment directly about the accusation calling out the specific employee, but said the post office is \u201calways concerned when a customer is not satisfied with the way we conduct a transaction or provide a service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with any service organization, quality customer service from professional, courteous, and friendly employees is vital,\u201d he added. \u201cShould anyone ever experience a customer service issue, we encourage them to ask for the manager on-site. Personal consultation ensures direct attention.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is best to file complaints online because the system is tracked. Complaints made over the phone are not as well-documented.<\/p>\n

Another resident said she waited more than six months for a large check that got held up at the post office. The resident asked that she remain anonymous because she feared retribution and said \u201cI do not want my postal service to get any worse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amy Reid, a Marvel resident, said Nancy returned her mail to the sender as \u201cretaliation\u201d because Reid ordered live poultry after Nancy asked her not to, citing an allergy. A clerk at the Hesperus post office who identified herself as Nancy (and declined to give a last name) confirmed she was allergic to chickens, but said that was \u201cno longer an issue\u201d because there is now another employee running the Marvel office.<\/p>\n

La Plata County commissioners have brought the issue to the attention of Bennet and Rep. Lauren Boebert<\/a>. Both lawmakers have said they would work to address the matter.<\/p>\n

Bennet met with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in March after repeatedly sending him letters highlighting constituent concerns. The lawmaker\u2019s aide said the postmaster heard the complaints and that \u201cSenator Bennett\u2019s office will continue to monitor this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

have raised ire across the nation for years, and they continue in Southwest Colorado<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,866,2203,367,25],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-hesperus","tag-marvel","tag-u-s-rep-lauren-boebert","tag-u-s-sen-michael-bennet"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31530"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81474,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31530\/revisions\/81474"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31530"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}