Residents: Postal Service rejects mail delivery solution

When the post office in Viola closed last month, Karen Peterson said she worked with local leaders to find a solution, but that solution was rejected by the U.S. Postal Service.

Peterson, the rental manager for the Viola Community Center, said she approached the board of directors for the Viola community and found they’d be willing to dedicate some land for a few mailbox cluster units that would allow local residents to send and receive mail without leaving the community.

She then contacted the postmaster of the Moscow post office, which oversaw the Viola post office while it was operating, and was told the subject had already been broached with supervisors a few months prior. Still, Peterson asked if the postmaster could check back into it.

“One day, I got a phone call with a message saying to call the postmaster in Moscow,” Peterson said. “And (the postmaster) said, ‘Great news, (the Postal Service) is thinking about putting in four cluster boxes.’ ”

Peterson then met with the mail carrier and carved out a space of land to place the cluster mailboxes. She called the postmaster once more to say they were ready for units to be installed. That’s when she discovered the project was turned down.

The Postal Service was unwilling or unable to pay the expense of putting in a cement pad and the cluster boxes, according to Peterson.

“That was the end of that,” she said. “Under normal circumstances, if we could have afforded it, we probably would have paid for it.”

Moscow interim postmaster Danene Johnson said she was not allowed to discuss the situation with the media.

The Viola Community Center opened a few months before the start of the pandemic, and Peterson said it’s been struggling just to keep up with bills. It wouldn’t be able to afford the four, sixteen-box units needed to replace the P.O. Boxes that many residents relied on.

In the days following the post office’s closure on Oct. 15, there were 44 mailboxes which had yet to be switched over, according to Peterson. Those residents hadn’t bothered to change their address or make other arrangements.

“It’s a real shame for Viola because we have a lot of elderly here,” she said. “For many of them, it’s impossible or extremely difficult for them to drive over Moscow Mountain to go over to Moscow to pick up their mail.”

According to Viola resident Dan Hardesty, a lack of communication from the Postal Service has left him and his neighbors in the dark. Since the closure, he’s been traveling to Moscow to retrieve his mail.

“Before we go to the hassle of changing our mail delivery address, we want to be sure that P.O. Box delivery will not be returning to Viola,” he stated in an email.

Hardesty stated it was his understanding the Viola Community Center had offered space for relocation at no cost to the Postal Service.

Ernie Swanson, communications specialist for the U.S. Postal Service in Seattle, said he was unfamiliar with any offer from the Viola Community Center.

“If they want to make a formal presentation to us, we’ll certainly listen to it and see if it’s feasible,” he said. “We certainly want to stay in the immediate area of Viola and provide the service, so we’ll consider any and all offers and suggestions.”

If anything went to discussion, Swanson said he’d likely be notified.

Palermo can be reached at apalermo@dnews.com or on Twitter @apalermotweets.