First Class Importance
Northville Post Office will play critical role this election By Maria Taylor
D
elays, overhauls, and pandemic-related shutdowns have put the US Postal Service in the national spotlight. On the local level, Northville’s downtown post office is not without controversy of its own. Last fall, USPS officials announced that the post office had outgrown its space at 200 South Wing Street and was going to relocate. In a February 2020 letter to Congresswoman Haley Stevens, USPS said it had picked a new site a half-mile away — but didn’t say where. Then, the pandemic hit. Like everyone else across southeast Michigan, Northville area residents started seeing their mail carriers less and less — even as the biggest election in four years draws near. USPS SHAKEUP Stevens said her office has been getting calls from people whose mail has been late. “The post office is a literal lifeline for countless people who rely on it to receive prescription medications, for small businesses to ship to their customers, for seniors to receive Social Security checks, to do their taxes, pay their bills, and so much more,” she said. “As the election approaches, certainly people are looking to the post office, as they have always looked to the post
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office, to deliver critical resources.” Stevens feels that recent USPS management decisions have only inflamed pandemic-related slowdowns. “What we’re seeing is a ricocheting effect,” she said. “The Postal Service is running at what they call Christmas levels of mail. Right now is not the time to be putting into place institutional reforms that strip away processing machines.” Stevens said she is working on “making sure that we have a functional post office now and into November.” In late August, she voted for the Delivering for America Act, a bipartisan bill which (if signed into law) would prohibit USPS from implementing changes to levels of service for the duration of the coronavirus crisis or through January 2021, as well as provide funding for USPS operations. Closer to home, Northville officials are still waiting to hear what’s next for the local post office. “At this point, there has not been further communications at the federal level about the post office next steps,” said Northville Mayor Brian Turnbull. “They have not made any arrangements with any landlord, to our knowledge.” The radio silence has sparked rumors
A voter uses the drop box at Northville City Hall.
that federal USPS changes will be used as a ploy to close the Northville post office. Turnbull shot that down. “That’s not the way it’s going to be,” he said. Northville residents can be sure of one thing: The post office will still be in place, in its current location, for the election in November. “Obviously, USPS is an inherently important part of elections,” said Northville Township Clerk Marjorie Banner. “They deliver all our ballots, so we rely on them to be timely and efficient at their job.” And if the presidential primary in August was any indication, more voters than ever will be following a long American tradition of voting by mail.
