County jury commissioners say mail is slower since the USPS made changes in Pocatello

It’s been over a year-and-a-half since the United State Postal Service stopped some mail processing services at it’s Pocatello location. The changes mean that while packages are still processed in Pocatello, First Class envelopes are sent down to Salt Lake for processing, then returned back to Pocatello for distribution.

Jury commissioners in Bonneville County say the changes have made a difference in the timeliness of mail they get. “We see more of them coming in late,” said Gabrielle Sargent, the Jury Commissioner’s Assistant.

Sargent said she and her colleagues in the jury commissioners office see more mail that’s been out for extended periods of time. “We see them (letters) three to four months out and behind now, whereas that didn’t really happen before.”

For time sensitive mail like jury duty summons, late mail is a bit of a problem. Sargent said their office gets one to two people daily complaining that they sent their information in even when the jury commissioners office never received it. She said prior to the mail distribution changes, they saw significantly fewer complaints of that sort.

Local News 8/Eyewitness News reached out to the regional media representative for the USPS for an interview. The representative, Brian Sperry, declined to interview, but did send an e-mail in response.

In the email, Sperry said, “Post offices in the area have not experienced an uptick in customer complaints, but if individuals are having a particular service issue, they should contact the Postal Service either by calling 1-800-ASK USPS or visit us on our website at usps.com/help.”

He also said, “The U.S. Postal Service revised service standards in January 2015 implementing a two-day delivery standard for local First Class Mail. This was a national change, not one affecting only southeastern Idaho.”

Sperry ended the e-mail saying the USPS has no record of the Bonneville County Jury Commissioners sharing their concerns. He did say over the phone that he would personally call the jury commissioners office to see if anything could get worked out.

Sargent said she and her colleagues simply hope that things get ironed out in the future. “We’d hope there would be some kind of agreement between both of us and everybody else for that matter in making sure things are accounted for and reliable, so that we don’t have this kind of thing anymore,” said Sargent.