Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) today announced that the residents of Bradley Beach and Avon-by-the-Sea are once again seeing their mail delivered out of their local post offices beginning this week. 

Smith, who has pushed to restore basic delivery services to the towns’ residents, thanked the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) for identifying solutions for those who have suffered extensive delays and other delivery mishaps after the USPS consolidated operations in the area.

“Starting this week, U.S. mail will once again be delivered out of the Avon-by-the-Sea and Bradley Beach post offices, restoring the original delivery process,” said Smith, who has been relentless in pushing for improved mail delivery in the area.

“Residents have endured years of delivery delays or mistakes.  After I hosted multiple meetings with key postal officials and local residents, the USPS was, thankfully, persuaded.  I am optimistic that the decision to reopen delivery operations at the local facilities will ensure better consistency, efficiency and reliability once and for all,” he said.

After the USPS consolidated mail delivery out of the Belmar Post Office to save on costs, Smith began hearing reports of late mail delivery, mail delivered to the wrong address, or not at all.  Known for fighting to solve local constituent problems, Smith met with USPS officials three times— in 2016 at which time a postmaster change was announced, a second meeting in 2017, and then in May, 2018, a turning-point meeting at the Avon Municipal Marina Building where Smith and local residents pushed for bolder action on the part of the USPS as the agency’s minor changes to date had made short-term progress with an eventual relapse into wide-spread delivery problems.

 The decision to ultimately restore delivery operations at each local post office was announced in August, 2018, after a meeting Smith hosted in Avon with residents and postal officials.  The plan had an expected start time of October, 2018, but the date was pushed back when the USPS reported it needed more time to hire and train at least five new employees to enhance local delivery. In October, Smith met once again with USPS leaders to secure the revised implementation date of January 22, 2019.

“Many thanks to the local residents who attended the meetings I hosted and worked together to win the return of full mail delivery services,” Smith said. “I appreciate that key postal officials ultimately intervened to fix the problem, and I will continue to monitor their progress to ensure their customers—my constituents—get the timely, reliable mail services they deserve.”