December 15, 2024

LOCAL NEWS

 Sam Smith - Your editor started his first local publication some 60 years ago on Capitol Hill, believing that those in the neighborhood, and not just those in Congress, had tales to tell. Now he lives in a small town in Maine and along with Undernews publishes a Facebook page for the folks in the village. I mention this because local news is currently being covered far less than used to be the case and Freeport Notes is a simple example about how to  easily get something going in your 'hood. 

Recent topics have been whether to leaf blow or not, finding an apartment for a reader's sister, and a video of a mailman singing happy birthday to a 97 year old resident. Especially liked this explanation by the postmaster on why service has been slow:

Sherry Barter - I’m the postmaster… we are backlogged due to the amount of packages we have been receiving every day. Normally we get around 1500 but this time of year it shoots up to around 7000-8000 a day! We also had a carrier out sick and the bad weather early in the week.. We appreciate your patience and understanding as this is our busiest time of year and this year has been the worst so far as far as volume of packages. All the staff here are working 12-14 hrs a day at least to get Christmas delivered to our customers. I’m personally still at the office since about 5 this morning and I have more to deliver still. Packages are priority because they take up space in our small office. If you can imagine the space that 8000 packages a day takes up…. So we will be out tomorrow morning starting at around 6am. And hope to clear up all the backlog by Tuesday or Wednesday at the very latest. It’s hard to deliver 500-600 packages per day and not get behind but we are doing our best. Thank you.
 

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