The front page story in Wednesday’s newspaper described the state’s plan to ensure that the many thousands of snowmobilers operate safely on Maine trails this winter.
The story jumped to Page A8, where it reported, among other developments, that Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Commissioner Danny Martin has “urged all riders to wear their helmets.” An adjacent two-column color photograph illustrating the story featured a Lewiston snowmobiler zipping along on his snowsled. The Associated Press photo fairly jumped off the page, and it was not hard to see why: The only thing that Snowmobile Guy wore on his head was a receding hairline.
So much for Martin’s impassioned plea for snowmobilers to wear helmets while operating their machines. And for the “common sense” urged upon snowmobilers by Gov. John Baldacci in the photo’s caption, as well.
And speaking of the absence of common sense…
A full-page advertisement in last weekend’s newspaper aimed at customers of the U.S. Postal Service and paid for by the Bangor Area Local 536 of the American Postal Workers Union left no doubt that the union believes the postal service’s decision to send mail from eastern and northern Maine to Scarborough for processing is a clunker.
In August, citing improved efficiency and cost-savings, the USPS began sending to its Scarborough facility so-called “standard-class flat mail” from eastern and northern Maine that for the past decade had been processed at its Hampden processing center. In November, the postal service also began shipping to Scarborough all Saturday mail originating here in The Real Maine.
The union’s newspaper ad claimed that the procedure has resulted in frequently delayed mail arriving at the Hampden processing center from the Scarborough facility, with a consequent inconvenience to postal customers. The USPS says an independent monitoring of the new procedures doesn’t support the allegations. In letters to editors of area newspapers, as well as to the postal service and members of the Maine congressional delegation, customers have complained about the system.
The union ad suggested that the geography involved makes the decision to transfer work to Scarborough a bad one. It stated that a letter mailed on a Saturday from Fort Kent to Millinocket under the new routine is trucked from Fort Kent to Hampden, where it is placed on a different truck for the 135-mile drive to Scarborough for processing. It is then sent by truck back to Hampden to be further processed and finally transported to Millinocket, a total distance of 538 miles from sender to recipient.
And what of the letter mailed on a Saturday in Fort Kent destined for a business or residence just across town, or elsewhere in the St. John Valley? Whereas that one formerly traveled “only” the roughly 400 miles to Hampden and back before reaching the recipient, it now travels an additional 270 miles before it is deposited in the addressee’s mailbox.
Valley residents will be forgiven the pun should they allege that may be pushing the envelope of postal service standards a bit.
When the Hampden processing center’s mail was first shipped to Scarborough last summer, Hampden Town Manager Sue Lessard told reporters, “I’m not sure how it makes sense to send mail down to southern Maine, only to have to send it back.”
For years, postal customers in the far-flung areas of eastern and northern Maine have been expressing the same sentiment about the practice of sending their mail to Hampden for sorting and the subsequent return of much of it to their area. It is not surprising that the idea of sending the regional mail on to Scarborough may be playing even worse in the outback than it is in Hampden.
It’s a possibility that this alleged streamlining in a worsening economy makes sense and that the arrangement may be made to work, as the experts who know about such things insist. But the odds are even better that the average bear in this neck of the woods remains skeptical of official assurances that he is not somehow getting hosed in the deal.
When it comes to what is considered best for the occupants of one Maine, vis-a-vis occupants of the other, this is not his first rodeo.
On 1/3/09 at 8:06 AM,
voteright wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Kent, you must remember that the USPS is a quasi government agency and therefore subject to the federal government's way of doing things.
Just imagine if the feds took control of our healthcare system. Maine patients would be sent to sunny Florida during the winter months because doctors and nurses are happier and work better in a warm climate.
Alex
On 1/3/09 at 8:06 AM,
voteright wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Kent, you must remember that the USPS is a quasi government agency and therefore subject to the federal government's way of doing things.
Just imagine if the feds took control of our healthcare system. Maine patients would be sent to sunny Florida during the winter months because doctors and nurses are happier and work better in a warm climate.
Alex
On 1/3/09 at 8:08 AM,
voteright wrote:
Repeated separate thumbs down will cause comment to be hidden
Well, even the BDN is subject to screw-ups, hence the double posting of my comment.
On 1/3/09 at 10:58 AM,
Knightscross wrote:
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The Postal Service just came through a year with 9 billion less pieces of first class mail. Christmas mail was down over 15% from last year. The Postal Service lost 3 Billion Dollars last year and projected to lose 5 Billion this year. The Postal Service is bankrupt. For the Postal Union to confuse mailers is pathetic propaganda to save The Hampden Mail Facility. Hampden needs to be closed NOW. Most of Maine's mail originates outside of Maine, about 95%. It comes to The Scarborough Mail Facility first. It is then reshipped to Hampden then reshipped back to Scarborough. The Postal workers in Hampden won't lose any jobs they are garanteed a job in Scarborough anyway. The Hampden Facility will be closed whether the Union likes it or not. If not, there will be no Postal Service as we know it. There are other Plants across the country being shut down to save Postal money. It is due time the Hampden Facility is shut down and the workers transferred to Scarborough for the survival of the Postal Service.
On 1/8/09 at 11:22 AM,
mailman wrote:
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Once again the long winded one totally missed the point of both Kent's fine article and the full page ad in the BDN. We are talking about delivery standards and how best to serve the customer. I doubt that mailers are "confused". It seems very simple to me and Mr Ward certainly explained it well. One might think from another negative letter that the Hampden plant gathers up its handful of letters and sends them on the way. The fact is we handle many thousands of pieces an hour coming and going from all of Maine and the world. It seems to me that to maintain a superior service to ALL of the people of Maine that taking mail on extra long truck drives is not the answer. Keepng the Hampden plant open and fully operational is.
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