Over the past several weeks, we have seen drastic negative changes at the Summerland Post Office. The employee hours were reduced to the point where only one person is working most days. This office requires a minimum of two employees daily in order to sort and distribute mail. Letters and packages are being delivered 2-3 days late, exacerbated by late delivery of mail to the post office from their central processing center. We know the Summerland PO employees very well, Bert Vega and DeBerta Holden, and they both work tirelessly to try to get the mail sorted and distributed in a timely fashion. But with the counter responsibilities, it is just not possible for one person to complete all that is needed.

We have lived in Summerland for 19 years, and remember when there were always three workers at the post office, one of which was the postmaster. Now the person performing the postmaster duties for Summerland apparently works out of the Carpinteria office. This person rarely comes to Summerland and is not providing adequate support to the Summerland employees. We need to have a postmaster on site to assist in assuring timely delivery and mail processing.

It was recently decided to close the Summerland post office completely on Saturdays. Many people work all week and the only time they can speak with a Summerland employee is on Saturday mornings.

Some customers depend on timely delivery of their mail because they receive their medications by mail, or checks which they need to survive. Now that the government has passed emergency legislation to fund the postal service, the Summerland office situation needs to be addressed and corrected.

I encourage everyone to contact Erika Reyes at Rep. Salud Carbajal’s office at (805) 730-1710 to voice your concerns about our post office situation.

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