Midcoast island residents were shocked and worried by a local airline’s announcement Tuesday morning that it is suspending mail service to three Penobscot Bay islands because the U.S. Postal Service owes it nearly $400,000.
“It’s a little scary,” said Jacqueline Curtis, a Select Board member from North Haven.
She has Type 1 diabetes and her medicine arrives by mail.
The post office is vitally important to North Haven’s social and economic life, Curtis said. People get their bills, paychecks and more through the mail and the little post office helps keep the downtown lively.
“It really is kind of the center of the island’s universe,” she said.
Penobscot Island Air announced on Tuesday that it will stop bringing the mail to North Haven, Vinalhaven and Matinicus until the postal service tells the company when it intends to pay the $388,000 it owes and how much the first payment will be.
The suspension of service to the three islands comes as Mainers in the midcoast and beyond report extensive problems with the postal service. The USPS is struggling with staffing issues and financial woes, and complaints about missed deliveries and erratic service continue to mount.
“We are waiting for a number and a date from USPS and it’s going to have to be a significant chunk … for us to continue,” said Matt Graveline, operational assistant at the company.
Penobscot Island Air is struggling to make payroll and the postal service contract makes up a fifth of its revenue, he said.
A representative for the postal service said in a statement Tuesday that the USPS “does not publicly discuss specifics with our business relationships” and will resolve the matter with the airline.
The decision to suspend service wasn’t an easy one, but the company opted to take drastic measures to try to get someone’s attention, owner Sean Creeley said.
“Even though it sounds like a lot of money, it’s a rounding error to the United States government,” he said. “We thought about doing this a while ago, but we were like, ‘No, we can’t. We can’t do that to the islands.’”
The company announced the temporary suspension in a Facebook post.
“It kicked up a proper dust storm,” Creeley said.
Hannah Pingree, a gubernatorial candidate who lives on North Haven, shared the post, calling the USPS’s lack of payment “unacceptable.”
“The President wants the USPS to go out of business,” she wrote.
Linda Hayes, a Vinalhaven resident, was shocked when she heard that mail service was being temporarily suspended. She called her senators’ offices to ask them to intervene.
Hayes’ husband is a veteran, one of many on the island, and gets his medicine through the mail. Without delivery, he will have to make the trek to Augusta to pick it up. Hayes pays some of her bills through the mail.
Penobscot Island Air provides other essential services, like transportation to the islands and medical evacuations, so she wants to make sure the company stays solvent.
Hayes hopes the airline gets paid in full soon so it can resume mail service and pay its employees.
“They’ve been doing a wonderful job at it,” she said. “They deserve to get paid for what they’re contracted for.”
Marjorie Stratton, Vinalhaven’s town manager, also expressed support and concern for the company. She said she hopes the dispute is resolved soon, but understands the decision to suspend service.
“I’m supportive of them,” she said.
The company has been talking to postal service officials Tuesday, but so far the two parties have not come to an agreement.
The problems date back to 2023, when Penobscot Island Air received an overpayment from the USPS, because of a change in how it billed for its services. The company applied the credit to future invoices, and then, when the money was gone, the USPS said it wanted the payment to be applied to a different period of time.
“Of course, that credit had already been used up, so that was not possible,” Graveline said.
The company has not been paid for any of the deliveries it has made so far this year, Graveline said. The USPS has paid for only some of the deliveries in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
“We’ve been on them trying to get payments and they’ve been telling us, ‘They’re coming, they’re coming,’” Graveline said.
U.S. Sen. Susan Collins on Tuesday said her office contacted the USPS and Penobscot Island Air “to gather additional information and urge a quick resolution” after hearing from residents on Vinalhaven. Collins said “USPS officials have responded that they are actively reviewing” the problem.
Creeley said he hopes his company will know when and how much it can expect to get paid soon.
“If we get those two things, we’re happy to get back to work,” he said. “We want to be doing this job.”