Illinois town demands answers after more than a year without a post office
By Alexis Zotos
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LIVINGSTON, Illinois (KMOV) — For Terry Wray and his neighbors, picking up the mail isn’t a simple walk to the end of the drive way. Instead it’s a 20 minutes drive to the neighboring town.
“You cannot mail anything in Livingston,” explained Wray. He’s the town supervisor for the Olive Township in Madison County Illinois.
On September 28, 2020, he and the residents in Livingston all received a letter from the United Postal Service (USPS) saying their post office was currently suspended for health and safety reasons.
The letter listed things like “roof trimming is damaged” and “tree overgrowth close to building” as reasons for suspending services at the Livingston Post Office. The next day, the post office closed. More than a year later, and it has never reopened. Instead residents have to drive to Staunton, a 14-mile round trip, to pick up their mail.
“I’m the town supervisor so I go every day,” said Wray.
The letter sent by Jeff Hamilton, the manager of Post Office Operations, said the decision to permanently discontinue the post office had not been made and that a meeting would be held in coming weeks. A year later, and no meeting was ever held. Instead residents are stuck waiting and wondering.
“If you’re not going to bring back to the post office, tell us, let us know,” said Wray.
Residents reached out to Representative Rodney Davis about the issue. The Congressman was able to get a response from USPS, and in a letter to Wray, USPS said, “the current lease negotiations for Alternate Quarters should be finalized within the next two to three weeks.”
But that was October, and still no news.
“It’s an inconvenience more so for my wife because she’s the one who goes and gets it all the time,” said Fred Peterson, who’s lived in Livingston his whole life.
Now they are all sending letters to Davis and Senator Tammy Duckworth to try to get quicker action.
“I think every town’s supposed to have mail, including us,” said Peterson.
News 4 reached out USPS to find out what the status is and we are waiting to hear back.
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