ALTAMONT — After months of complaints from village residents about the Altamont post office, Mayor James Gaughan arranged for local postal officials to be at the June 6 village board meeting to hear customers’ grievances.
"The good rapport with the post office in the community has been eroding over the past few years," said Barbara Quackenbush, a resident and Altamont library trustee.

Post office customers aired their gripes at the meeting, all citing similar problems. If a piece of mail has only their street address, not their post office box number, it will be returned to the sender. This happens with important pieces of mail — credit-card bills, packages of medicine, and hospital bills — say residents, many of whom say that junk mail finds its way to their box without the requisite post office box number.

Caesar Taormina, consumer affairs manager for the post office, listened to residents’ concerns at the meeting and gave some explanation as to the delivery problems. He pointed out that the introduction of the Delivery Point Sequencing system, which has streamlined the delivery process, cutting down on carriers’ in-office work hours, requires the box number in order for the mail to get to the box.
DPS enables the mail carrier to take a tray of mail, usually 500 pieces, and deliver it immediately because the mail is already in sequence, he said. "It works the same way with P.O. boxes," said Taormina. "You can begin to see the value of proper addressing."

If a piece of mail is addressed to a house number, it will go to the carrier who covers that area rather than to the post office box tray of mail, which causes delays and complications, he said.

Residents at Tuesday’s meeting said that local knowledge should fill in the places where technology falls short. When the DPS system puts a piece of mail in the wrong tray, a postal employee who recognizes the name or address should put that piece of mail in the proper box regardless of improper addressing, several residents said.

Postal customers also said that the companies that they do business with leave off the box number although the company is given that information from the customer. Suzanne DeLyons, manager of marketing for the post office, acknowledged this problem and said that the post office should work on getting the word out to businesses that box numbers are necessary.

What residents were most concerned about at the meeting were the financial problems they say they’ve had as a result of returned mail, though Beatrice Smith voiced concern over medicine that didn’t get to her on time.

Debra Pratt, who oversees mailing newspapers at The Altamont Enterprise, listed several financial problems that she has had as a result of problems with the post office, including a check that she got four months late.
Taormina closed the comment session, saying that the post office would get back to people addressing specific concerns and summing up: "The bottom line is — if we know where it goes, we deliver it."

Other business

In other business, the village board:

— Voted unanimously to approve a request from Scott Forman, of the Altamont Community Tradition, to provide support for the July 16 Community Day at Bozenkill Park;

— Voted unanimously to authorize Mayor Gaughan to submit an application for a federal grant to the Department of Transportation to benefit the Altamont Free library. The money would be used to move the library from the basement of the Key Bank to the old train station. The village will be co-sponsoring the application with the town of Guilderland and is in no way financially responsible;

— Authorized payment of $5,454.21 to E. Guy Roemer for legal services related to litigation with Michael and Nancy Trumpler over land for village wells;

— Announced that the Crounse house was taken last week and the mayor asked that the porch be taken off, which was done. The historic house on the corner of Route 146 and Gun Club Road was bought jointly by the town of Guilderland and the village of Altamont for back taxes from Albany County. A structural report and inventory of the property will be done and;

— Authorized Mayor Gaughan to represent Altamont Senior Citizens in a meal program grant though the Albany County Office of the Aging that will subsidize the weekly luncheon program.