The New Hyde Park postmaster said Tuesday the Post Office has hired three new full-time carriers and is making businesses a delivery priority following widespread complaints from New Hyde Park residents, businesses and political officials about inconsistent mail delivery in recent months
“Unfortunately things broke apart here over the last several months over a bevy of issues,” New Hyde Park Postmaster Bob Guglielmo said.
Guglielmo said he has returned to address issues in New Hyde Park after being on assignment in another part of the region for the past several months.
He said the delivery issues in New Hyde Park were a result of carriers being out on sick leave, retirements and a reorganization that eliminated eight mail routes last fall, increasing the burden on carriers.
“They’ve had a sick leave issue here and it got a little out of hand. We had some retirements too,” Guglielmo said.
He said the New Hyde Park Post Office the three new full-time carriers hired in the past few weeks will replace three carriers who retired and the office now has a full complement of 68 mail carriers. He said the post office is also changing its priorities in mail delivery in response to complaints from local business owners.
“There will be some realignment. We’ve had issues where businesses are at the back end. They have to go to the front end,” Guglielmo said.
New Hyde Park Mayor Robert Lofaro, who experienced inconsistent mail deliveries in his neighborhood, said he knew of numerous residents who were lodging complaints with the Postal Service.
Joseph Palozzolo of J. Palazzolo Son, Inc., a contract packager for U.S. manufacturers, said he’s been waiting for overdue checks and bills since January.
But he complained the Post Office, Palozzolo said, he was told he could come to pick up his mail at the New Hyde Park Post Office annex near the Long Island Rail Road station.
“It’s not the mailman. It’s the management,” he said last week. “The management all should be canned.”
In late February, state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) said his office had alerted Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand about the problem and was steering complaints about sporadic mail delivery to her office.
“Senator Gillibrand advocated on behalf of New Hyde Park residents and will continue to ensure that the community has access to timely mail service,” said Gillibrand spokeswoman Angie Hu.
Hu said Gillibrand reached out to U.S. Postal Service officials, and said they responded and were working on resolving the delivery service problems that residents were facing.
At the time Connie Chirichello, spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service in the Northeast area, said the post office was looking into “concerns from Congressional folks” about New Hyde Park.
Guglielmo said New Hyde Park officials are making changes to ensure a return to consistent mail service throughout the village. But he conceded the change in operation was still a work in progress.
“I’d be lying if I said we’re 100 percent,” Guglielmo said. “We just have to make sure everybody’s back at a reasonable time and everybody gets their mail at a reasonable time.”
Herricks Civic Association member Irving Fried reported delivery of mail is back to normal in his Manhasset Hills neighborhood this week. Fried had previously said delivery was erratic earlier this month with no mail coming for periods of two days.
Thomas Siesto, vice president of Long Island branch 6000 of the National Association of Letter Carriers, recently pinned the blame for the mail delivery problems on poor management.
“The problem is due to mismanagement,” said Siesto, a New Hyde Park resident who’s been a mail carrier there since 1978. “Management doesn’t know how to use employees to the best of their abilities.”
He said carriers who now have 100 additional houses on their routes as a result of the New Hyde Park Post Office management eliminating eight carriers’ routes late last year don’t deliver all the mail they’re carrying each day.
A union representative for the New Hyde Park postal workers, Siesto said only four or five routes should have been cut and he’s been trying to resolve the problem for the past two months.
Chirichello reported last week that efforts were underway to ensure all New Hyde Park mail delivery routes are now being covered.
“Postal management are to address New Hyde Park concerns immediately and visit carriers on street observations,” she said.
Chirichello said if a mail carrier doesn’t report to work due to personal or sick leave, postal management typically puts a relief carrier on the route or divides the route into smaller portions for coverage by two or more carriers.
In some locations, she said carriers from neighboring offices are used to relieve short-term absences.
