Residents fed up as mail delivery issues continue on Vashon Island

VASHON, Wash. — Mail woes continue on Vashon Island, where some residents say they wait weeks or sometimes months for their mail to be delivered.

Residents there join a growing list of communities in western Washington that say they’re experiencing major delays from the U.S. Postal Service.

Jim Garrison is just one of the many Vashon Island residents who said they had lost faith in their local post office.

“It’s insane. We’re living in a third-world country all of a sudden,” said Garrison. “I had insurance documents mailed to me that didn’t come for two and a half months. I don’t know where they were. Whether they were sitting in that post office or sitting in some post office in Seattle. "

Residents report a mail lag that goes back months but has been exacerbated by the holiday season.

Some are still waiting on Christmas presents.

“They’re going on Amazon, for example, and they’re seeing that it’s scheduled to be delivered today, so they’re expecting their packages to show up, like pre-Christmas. A lot of that did not happen,” said David Mish, who also lives on Vashon Island.

Others anxiously wait for deliveries of medicine, diapers and propane items that they’ve tracked online to the postal facility on Vashon, but then radio silence — no delivery for weeks.

Residents alerted KIRO 7 to pallets of mail stored outdoors behind the post office, where they’re exposed to the elements.

Sending mail is also an issue. Residents say there’s often an hours-long line inside the post office.

A representative with the USPS credits these frustrations to staffing issues but tells KIRO 7 that the agency is actively hiring.

It also plans to temporarily relocate postal workers from other offices to Vashon in hopes that it will help alleviate some issues.

Residents agree that local post workers need help.

“I’m not blaming the local people, the employees here. I think they’re doing the best they can,” said Garrison. “But there’s something happening on the upper levels that is really messed up.”

Residents say they’ve started reaching out to their local representatives to try to find a solution, and a community meeting is scheduled to discuss the mail delays on Jan. 19.

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