Mail woes continue to dog Windsor residents

Complaints cite service neglect and cryptic compliance warning letters

The Berkshire Eagle

WINDSOR - The trouble with local mail delivery may have cost Max LaCasse his home insurance.

His policy was canceled after he failed to pay a bill he says he never received. He only received a cancellation.

Now that his previous policy has been canceled, other insurers won't take him on.

LaCasse blames his mail carrier, who has been leaving packages outside in the rain and tire treads in the lawn near the mailbox before peeling off. Fueling his theory of blame, LaCasse received a piece of mail about a tax abatement six months late.

On social media, people in Windsor - apparently served by that same carrier - have been sharing photos of wet packages and packages stuffed awkwardly in mailboxes, left misshapen and damaged.

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It wasn't always like this.

LaCasse, who built his home in Windsor two years ago, said that his first experience with mail delivery in Windsor was excellent, thanks to a private contractor from Connecticut.

"He was stellar. He was above and beyond," LaCasse said. Then someone complained. "I think he got moved to another route."

LaCasse and his wife have now complained - as have others, through official U.S. Postal Service channels - to no avail.

On May 22, things escalated.

That day Windsor residents received two notices, once containing the heading "Your Mailbox Needs Attention." The form notified residents that their mail boxes were "not approved" and that they were "too far from the road." It also contained a warning. After June 22, "delivery service may be suspended until the faults are corrected."

"If you have any questions, please see your carrier or contact me," the notice stated, ending with the word "POSTMASTER" stamped in red on the bottom line.

The second notice detailed the specifications for the new larger mailboxes.

Karen Schiltz received the notices. She lives on Route 9. She has stood on the highway to wrestle with packages that have been jammed too tightly into her mailbox, literally cutting them out.

"We're not moving it closer," she said, explaining that her mailbox has been hit by snowplows. "It already gets knocked down."

Schiltz lives with her adult son in Windsor who paid for the mailbox when they moved in two years ago.

"And he was like, 'Are you kidding me?'" Hinsdale Postmaster Christine Lombardi happens to live in Windsor. After the notices went out, she drove to some of the houses and spoke with residents.

"We were told, by the way, that, that was not approved by the postmaster, which is why basically she told everybody to ignore it," Schiltz said.

At that point, Madeline Scully, town administrator, decided to intervene for a second time in six months. Scul-ly emailed Windsor residents about the "postal service situation" as part of her June 9 town administrator newsletter.

"In an effort to de-escalate the postal service situation, I contacted [U.S. Rep. Richard] Neal's office, talking with Joseph Joyal, Neal's liaison to the USPS," she wrote. "I told him the Town could not comply with the placement of mailbox demand, nor could the residents afford to replace all the mailboxes."

She advocated for a regional driver, who wouldn't have to use Postal Service-issued trucks. Those trucks don't perform well in heavy snow or during mud season on Windsor's unpaved roads.

"This would allow a driver with an adequate, preferably 4-wheel drive, vehicle to deliver the mail to existing mailboxes," she wrote residents. "According to my research, the hired driver would receive $0.97/mile and a stipend from the USPS and would be non-union."

In addition, she made a second, "bolder" ask, to establish a community post office in Windsor.

"These post offices are established when small rural communities assume the responsibility of providing postal services," she wrote. "A postal worker is hired and paid a stipend by the USPS and would be responsible for sorting the mail and possibly selling stamps."

Since then, the problems with delivery haven't stopped.

"My biggest gripe was about three weeks ago," said Windsor resident Shenna Welch. On that day she watched the mail truck arrive. She found a notice saying she needed to sign for a package.

"Long story short is, there was no attempt to come to the house or knock on the door or actually see if we were home," she said.

She and LaCasse both noted that United Parcel Service and Federal Express seem to have no trouble delivering packages.

One resident with postal delivery complaints wouldn't to talk to The Eagle.

"Please mention that other people were afraid of retaliation by disgruntled workers and wouldn't go on the record," that person texted.

Scully received an email July 10 about her inquiry to Neal.

"My apologies for not getting back to you sooner," Joyal wrote. "We are having productive, ongoing discussions with the VP of Operations and see a long-term solution to the issue on the horizon. If there are any further developments, we will be sure to keep you posted."

The Eagle contacted the U.S. Postal Service for comment.

"I'm not familiar with the content of Congressman Neal's inquiry, but postal officials will respond directly to the Congressman's concerns," Stephen Doherty, strategic communications specialist for the U.S. Postal Service Atlantic Area - Northeast Region, wrote in a July 13 email. "Those responses are not made public."

Lombardi, the Hinsdale postmaster, told The Eagle on Thursday, that postal regulations bar her from making public comments.

Scully has experienced trouble with mail delivery at her home and noted Thursday that she had received no mail to her office in the previous two days.

"It's very strange that we can't do anything about it," she said. "It's very helpless."

"I'm at my wits end with the postman that blatantly refuses to just do his job," Max LaCasse wrote in a post accompanying this image. PHOTO PROVIDED