"Help is on the way": Colorado senators meet with Postmaster General about rural post office issues

"Help is on the way," that was the message from Sen. John Hickenlooper Wednesday after his meeting with fellow Sen. Michael Bennet and the Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. Colorado U.S. senators asked for help to fix the many issues surrounding our mountain post offices (which CBS News Colorado has covered extensively.) 

While Hickenlooper remains hopeful there will be a solution coming for people desperate for the basic right of mail, he did say the meeting with DeJoy could have gone better.

"He had a lot of reasons why it was other people's problems," Hickenlooper said. "I do think the guy is talented, he's had a career in logistics, and the post office is nothing but logistics, so he might be the right person. But I think we've got to accelerate him away from blaming other people and outside, you know, external conditions like not being able to hire people."

Both DeJoy and the senators agree that hiring people for the post office and keeping them continues to be a major struggle within resort communities and rural mountain towns where housing rates and rents have shot up in the last decade especially. 

"I would have rather gotten more quickly into what are the solutions or what are the places where we can work together with the post office and start, you know, getting this institution back on the rails," Hickenlooper said. 

In a release from the United States Postal Service about the meeting, DeJoy is quoted as saying:

"The solutions in mail delivery service inevitably involve human resources, and our workforce, no matter how hard-working, are spread thin in these mountain communities where it is expensive to live and difficult to hire; a challenge that will also need creative solutions from local leaders."

"The Postal Service can and will solve problems within our own power, but local economic conditions are not among them. The Senators appeared to understand the issues -- both of local circumstances and postal in nature -- and hopefully also appreciated the multifaceted steps we are taking to deploy resources to improve service."

Hickenlooper said he believes this is a good first step, but more needs to be done, and soon. 

"I am hopeful," Hickenlooper said. "We're still reaching out to try and get him to come visit Colorado."

As with all things in the nation's capital, the senator believes it will still be years before we have a fix in place for places like Buena Vista, Crested Butte and Silverthorne (who are all looking into suing the USPS in the meantime.)

"Now we've got to really push them to give us a list of priorities," Hickenlooper said. "If you get your first $10 million, where do we spend it? Where (does) the next $10 million go? And at the same time, you know, Gov. Polis has been very aggressive about trying to partner with mountain towns in this issue of affordable housing."

Hickenlooper also added he was thankful that DeJoy was taking steps like bringing in substitutes from other states to help clear the backlog of mail at some of our rural mailrooms, but it is not enough. 

"We're committed to help them get a more long-term solution," Hickenlooper said. "It might take a year or two, but let's get a long-term solution. So we're not always stamping out these little brush fires."