Congressman Chris Smith announced today that he has been successful in convincing the United States Postal Service (USPS) to resume mail delivery operations from the Avon-by-the-Sea and Bradley Beach post offices, a move he called “welcomed news for local residents.”
“The United States Postal Service tried a so-called cost-effective mechanism that has proven unworkable and resulted in mail delivery chaos for residents of Bradley Beach and Avon,” said Smith who hosted a turning-point meeting with residents and key postal officials earlier this summer.
“At a recent meeting I convened in Avon, I presented numerous problems our residents have experienced, and their first-hand witness offered compelling insight into the extraordinary difficulties they faced with mail delivery—and non-delivery—after the Post Office consolidated delivery services for Bradley Beach and Avon into the Belmar Post Office.”
Smith said that at his May meeting, top postal officials listened intently to residents’ concerns, promised to investigate the matter further, improve training and conduct an in-depth survey of mail operations out of Belmar and affecting the other two towns. He said the results of the research and survey were undeniable.
“Postal officials have told me that the decision to scrap the original plan and run mail delivery out of the two local post offices will ‘dramatically improve’ delivery, and help earn back the confidence of postal customers.”
“Relocating the management of the local delivery back into the hometown post offices will mean that there will be greater consistency of letter carriers, more dependable delivery times, as well as reliable package delivery to homes and businesses in Bradley Beach and Avon,” Smith added.
The congressman credited the dozens of local residents and officials who reached out to him for assistance with helping to convince the USPS to ditch the consolidation plan and return the local mail delivery back to the local post offices, which were used solely as retail and mail pick-up locations for the past several years.
In addition, Smith said that the delivery issues recently experienced by residents of the West Belmar section of Wall Township will also be addressed by USPS. He said that his office has been working with the new Belmar Post Office Manager, Rich Disanza, to correct the issues Wall residents have experienced with their delivery from the Belmar Post Office. Returning the delivery responsibilities for Avon and Bradley Beach to their own locales should enable the Post Office to enhance operations out of Belmar including the deliveries in Wall.
Rep. Smith has met with USPS officials three separate times to work and clear up the continuing problems in the area. The first meeting with local and USPS South Jersey District staff, as well as residents, took place in 2016 at which management changes were announced; a second meeting with both USPS staff and residents was held in 2017; and in May of this year, at the Avon Municipal Marina Building with high-ranking USPS staff and numerous affected residents present. At the May meeting, Smith stressed that the minor adjustments made after the previous meetings were not sufficiently addressing the problems, and he called upon the post office to fix the issues once and for all.
The changes will be put in place in the coming weeks, with the goal of having the locally-managed mail delivery in place by the holiday rush.
