Mountain towns pick attorneys to potentially sue United States Postal Service
The players are set, the question is, will there be a match?
After the initial message out from mountain towns looking to learn more about what it would take to sue the United States Postal Service, the towns of Avon, Buena Vista, Parachute, Silverthorne, Snowmass Village, and Steamboat Springs, along with the town of Crested Butte have all retained the services of Kaplan Kirsh Rockwell LLP as their chosen team to look further into a lawsuit.
Dara MacDonald, Town Manager for Crested Butte, received several of complaints from these towns.
She's not frustrated with the staff themselves but frustrated with the way that they are supported by the USPS, or the lack of support rather. That, they say, leads to low staffing, which leads to undelivered mail, late mail, really long lines, and a lack of free P.O. boxes, or delivery.
"It's almost faster to drive down to Gunnison, 30 miles away to get your mail," MacDonald said.
Mountain Newsroom reporter Spencer Wilson asked why now? MacDonald's response highlighted a common issue for the mountain mailrooms.
"Last year, we lost our postmaster again," MacDonald explained. "The consistent staff turnover, no light at the end of the tunnel...we had exhausted our local options and so that has prompted us to look at what legal options may exist."
It's important to note that this, again, does not mean they are suing right now.
It's merely an avenue to figure out what they would need to do in the event they went further. But there's not much faith that things will fix themselves at this point.
There's still an open invitation from both Colorado senators right now for the Post Master General to visit from Washington D.C. to figure out some of the issues or devise a situation to fix them.
