“We didn’t think they’d want to re-open, so we’ll have to drag them kicking and screaming by doing something legislatively.” – Dino DiSanto
The Chagrin Falls Post Office is adequate to fill the needs of three communities in two ZIP Codes and no additional facility is needed, Acting USPS District Manager Sharon Young told U.S. Rep. David Joyce in a recent letter.
Since January, residents and trustees from Auburn and Bainbridge townships have complained about poor service, missing or misdelivered mail, lack of parking, long lines and rude employees at the Chagrin Falls Post Office, which serves the Village of Chagrin Falls and both townships.
Trustees from both townships held joint meetings in May and June to hear residents’ complaints — and added several of their own, including a batch of certified letters, sent by Bainbridge, that were never delivered.
Trustees enlisted Joyce’s help and, in July, Joyce (R-14) met with postal officials to request a separate postal station for the 44023 ZIP code.
The Bainbridge post office annex had been closed in 2012 and service had been transferred to the much-smaller Chagrin Falls Post Office. For the last few years, complaints have increased steadily, with residents bringing their complaints to township trustees and trustees, in turn, contacting Joyce’s office.
“We asked for three things: service, delivery and a separate post office,” Bainbridge Township Trustee Kristina O’Brien said Monday.
After Joyce made his request in July, postal officials told him they would respond by letter.
O’Brien read the July 27 letter at Monday’s trustees meeting. In it, Young told Joyce that steps have been made to improve service, including improved employee training and review, adding a pedestrian ramp to overflow parking and opening a third service window.
Young told Joyce she had received positive feedback from many people during a July 26 customer appreciation day and urged customers to make any further complaints to the post office’s customer care center at 1-800-275-8777.
However, Young said there is no need for an additional facility.
“Currently, the Chagrin Falls Post Office meets our present and projected operational needs,” Young concluded in her letter. “Therefore, we have no plans to reopen the Chagrin Falls (Bainbridge) Annex at this time.”
“I was disappointed in the response,” O’Brien said, adding she has not seen improvement in delivery issues.
She also said she was appalled at seeing a photocopy of a handwritten letter in her post office box from the postal service.
“It was ill worded and full of grammatical errors,” O’Brien said. “It was very disappointing. There has to be some degree of professionalism at the post office.”
She added, “I recently sent a letter to someone in Tanglewood (a Bainbridge subdivision) and, after 10 days, he still had not received it.”
O’Brien said she contacted Joyce’s office to ask what, if any, next steps could be taken.
On Tuesday, Joyce’s spokesman Dino DiSanto told the Geauga County Maple Leaf that Young’s statement had not been a surprise, given the post office’s current cost-cutting policies.
“We didn’t think they’d want to re-open, so we’ll have to drag them kicking and screaming by doing something legislatively,” DiSanto said.
Representatives from Joyce’s office hope to meet with trustees from both townships soon to determine the next steps in the process, he added.
“We have two distinct issues here,” DiSanto said. “The service issue should be dealt with no matter what and, with the issue of the separate post office, we’ll continue to pound on the door about it. We get it.”
The only way to resolve this is to force legislation, he said.
DiSanto was instrumental several years ago in helping the late Congressman Steve LaTourette include a line in a budget bill that forced the post office to use one ZIP code to serve Auburn Township, following years of pressure from the Auburn Township Trustees.
DiSanto said his office would arrange a joint strategy session with trustees as soon as schedules allow.
“We will figure out the next step as soon as possible,” he promised.
