WEST PARIS — U.S. Rep. Jared Golden has sent a letter demanding an update from United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy concerning the more than three-year closure of the West Paris post office.
“It has now been three years since the USPS closed the facility, requiring residents of West Paris and neighboring communities to travel an additional seven miles to the next closest USPS facility,” Golden wrote.
Residents very much miss the post office, West Paris Town Manager Joy Downing said.
“They definitely want it back,” she said.
In the agency’s most recent update from July 2023, officials stated that the West Paris branch was expected to be “fully operational” this May.
“Since USPS announced the closure of the West Paris post office my requests for status updates about the reopening have been met with unsatisfactory and ultimately false responses from your agency,” Golden wrote.
He noted that he understands the need for secrecy regarding ongoing negotiations for the lease of the building, but the “lack of transparency and unwillingness to provide information to relay to my constituents who rely on the Postal Service every day is deeply concerning.”
“My constituents — your customers — deserve to know when their local post office will reopen or at least, if that information is unavailable, what is causing the delay,” Golden wrote in the letter. “If your plans to reopen have changed, they deserve to know that too.”
The USPS does not have an update at this time, spokesperson Steve Doherty said by email Monday. He explained that the postmaster general would respond directly to Golden’s letter.
The USPS has “lost focus” under DeJoy, American Postal Workers Union Local 458 President Scott Adams said in a press release issued by Golden’s office.
“This is clearly evident in the disparity between how slowly it takes to reopen rural post offices to how rapidly they move forward to consolidate large processing facilities across the country,” he said.
According to the release, Golden has “championed holding the Postal Service accountable to Mainers throughout his time in Congress.”
Following his communication with DeJoy last year, USPS reopened its Etna facility, which had also been closed since May 2021.
“Earlier this month, USPS announced that it was postponing plans to consolidate the Eastern Maine Processing & Distribution Facility in Hampden after bipartisan efforts led by Golden and other members of Congress,” the release reads. “His bipartisan Timely Mail Delivery and Postal Services Protection Act — which he introduced in April — would permanently block the process USPS uses to consolidate mail processing facilities across the country.”
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