Lakeville residents push for change over USPS mail delivery delays
The U.S. Postal Service says 79% of mail is delivered within two days in Minnesota, but that's below the national target of 87%.
According to the USPS Office of the Inspector General, that equates to one in five letters not making it to your mailbox within the standard two-day delivery.
"Mail has never been great here," said Katie Majewski, a Lakeville resident.
She moved to the south metro from a community near LaCrosse, Wisconsin, where she says U.S. postal arrival times were better.
"I lived in a community of 300 people, and I got my mail faster than I do up here. It's ridiculous," said Majewski.
She says packages from her family in Wisconsin take anywhere from two weeks to a month to arrive.
"If my mom mails my children a birthday card with money in it, we now [drive and] meet halfway because we know it's going to be faster and safer for it to actually reach us," said Majewski.
Katie's congresswoman, Democratic Rep. Angie Craig, believes staffing shortages are causing the delays.
"For the Minnesota region to be 38th in the country, two-day mail service to be below 80%, eight points below the national average is just simply unacceptable," said Craig.
Craig says she's most concerned about people who rely on the mail to deliver medications or other important documents.
"Don't hesitate to reach out to my office or one of our U.S. Senate offices because we can work directly with those critical USPS items to get it done, but at the end of the day, we need to fix the post office," said Craig.
Majewski says she can only be hopeful for change.
"It's just words [from politicians] until we see it actually physically change, so I can be hopeful, but that's about it," said Majewski.
The postal service inspector general is currently investigating the entire Minnesota postal district following a bi-partisan push from Congress.
