Lisa Nowatzki

Postal workers and letter carriers have had their fair share of bad press. Movies have exploited the postal worker genre. Movies like "Three Days of the Condor," "Funny Farm," and "The Postman" feature letter carriers as CIA hitmen, hit-and-run rural delivery drivers, and post-apocalyptic postmen. Cartoons and commercials have also had fun with the ongoing feud between the Mailman and the family dog. On the darker side, "going postal" is embedded in the American lexicon as a slang term meaning an uncontrollably angry, extremely violent act by a disgruntled employee, usually in a workplace environment. Terrorists have used the US Mail system to send package bombs and letters laced with deadly anthrax. The United States Postal Service (USPS) has endured and delivered the mail through all the jokes and bad press. "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds" has long been the unofficial motto of the USPS. According to the USPS website, in 2017, the 30,825 Post Offices in the United States delivered 149.5 billion pieces of mail. That averages to nearly 410 million pieces of mail per day delivered to your doorstep. Congress created the United States Post Office on July 26, 1775, with Benjamin Franklin appointed the first Postmaster General. The Postal Department was built in 1792 as a direct result of Franklin's enterprise. Then, in 1971 the United States Postal Service (USPS) was formed. Today, more than 500 thousand career employees support and service more than 220 thousand delivery routes. The postal service has every right to brag. According to their website, "The Postal Service delivers more mail to more addresses in a larger geographical area than any other post worldwide. We deliver to more than 157 million addresses in every state, city, and town. Everyone living in the United States and its territories has access to postal products and services and pays the same for a First-Class postage stamp regardless of their location." Locally, the Langdon Post Office is one of the main cornerstones of the community. Postmaster Tammy Zidon and the staff at the post office work throughout the week to ensure residents get their mail on time. Zidon is a native from the Edinburg area. She is married and has two daughters and three dogs. Working under Ziadon are two postal clerks, Bonnie McQuarie and Penny Hoffarth. The city and rural carriers are Ron Gronhovd, Kari Phillips, and Sherry Jay. And the highway contract drivers are Katelyn Johnson, Sam Johnson, and Rod Howatt. These employees do much more than sort and deliver the mail. According to the American Job Exchange, postal clerks are responsible for sorting incoming and outgoing mail. They stuff letter carrier bags, hand stamp mail, and fill out and process money orders. In addition, they have to register, certify, and insure letters and parcels. They also take pictures of passports and open and stuff mailboxes at the post office. The list goes on and on. Letter Carriers also have a long list of responsibilities. They include delivering packages and mail to businesses and people in towns, cities, and rural areas. They set up routes and deliver mail six days a week on their routes. In addition, their duties include placing packages and letters in mailboxes and securing them with mailbox flaps. Rural Letter Carriers provide change-of-address cards and other postal forms when requested and leave notices on customers' doors informing them packages cannot be delivered and will be held at the local office. Again, the list of duties goes on and on. One of the problems associated with the post office is the service. No one notices or pays much attention as long as they get their mail, but people notice when their mail is not delivered. One of the most significant hindrances to mail delivery is an unrestrained dog. Unfortunately, Zidon said this is a persistent problem with letter carriers. In 2016, according to the USPS, 6775 Postal Service employees were bitten by dogs, up more than 206 cases in 2015. Therefore, Zidon said it is vital that dog owners keep their pets restrained or out of the way during delivery time. Another issue for carriers, according to Zidon, are tree branches. Of course, no one thinks about the tree branches hanging on the sidewalk or near the letterbox on a house. However, low-hanging branches and limbs constantly hit Letter Carriers in the head. So she asks owners to trim their trees around the mail delivery area. Some fun facts about the post office. The blue street post boxes used to be green, white, and red until they were standardized to the current blue color in 1971. December 19 is the busiest delivery day for the Post Office. The USPS processes and delivers 47 percent of the world's mail, and it maintains one of the largest fleets of civilian vehicles in the world, with more than 200,000 vehicles, including planes, trucks, vans, bicycles, mules, and boats. In Supai, Arizona, Letter Carriers deliver the mail on mules on the road down the Grand Canyon. The Remote Encoding Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, is responsible for deciphering terribly written or shoddily printed addresses. The employees sort through the mail that the automated system fails to process. If anyone has questions, the phone number of the Post Office is-, and it is located at 323 8th Avenue in Langdon. Their hours of operation are Monday thru Friday from 9:00 A. M. to 12:30 P. M. and 1:30 P. M. to 4:30 P. M. and from 10: A. M. to 12:00 P. M.