ISSUE: # 12: Return to Sender--The Ketchum Post Office

Another Epic Fail by the Troika

If you are the leader of your community and have known about a community-wide problem for more than six years, yet you have not taken the required action to address that problem in those six years, what does that say about you as a leader?

It says you care about other things than what your Community cares about.  

It is understandable that the Council hasn’t done more than pay lip service to this issue. We have to remember what Troika is in office to achieve—more tourists and taxing the locals to subsidize infrastructure to service them.

Tourists don’t get their mail in Ketchum. Local mail is not important to out-of-state investors and developers. So why would the Troika bother with fixing the post office? To them, this issue is a waste of time.

“You’ve Got Mail!” (Actually, You Don’t)

The Post Office in Ketchum is a problem.  The Troika should be solving it.  They are not.  They are too busy with their development program for Ketchum to attend to a long-standing problem that affects every local.  

There are two problems with the Post Office:

• the home delivery problem.

• the package problem.

They are related.  They are solvable.  

We don’t have a problem with the front-line staff. They are uniformly kind, patient, cheerful, and helpful. I think they are wonderful. But, like us, they are victims of a bad system.  

The postal regulations say that if you have a PO Box, you have to pay for it.  UNLESS you don’t have home delivery.  Then the box is free.  But we don’t have home delivery and are charged for our boxes.  Why?

Apparently, at some point lost in the annals of history, someone from the City of Ketchum agreed to this situation.  That’s the official position of the Ketchum Post Office. There is no documentation of it.  And it doesn’t really make sense, does it?  But we have put up with it for a long time because the Troika can’t be bothered to fix it.  

The package problem has compounded this.  Ordering online has become a way of life for most of America, including us.  However, depending on how boxes are shipped and addressed, there are two problems.  

Are You Feeling…Lucky?

Most people are aware that if a package is shipped via UPS or FedEx, those guys won’t deliver to a PO Box.  That is not a Ketchum Post Office problem.

However, it could be that the package might never get to you.  If it is shipped via USPS but has your street address, the Ketchum Post Office will send it back.  Because we don’t have home delivery. Of course, the people at the Ketchum Post Office know your box number based on your street address and could make the delivery to your box, but rules are rules, and there are only so many hours in the day.  Back goes the package, with no notification to you.

If the shipper is Amazon, good luck using either your PO Box or your home address because Amazon uses the USPS for last-mile delivery in Ketchum and presumes the USPS in Ketchum does home delivery.  You can improve the odds of delivery by giving up on getting any box at your house and instead using the Ketchum Post Office Street Address with your box number: E.g., 151 4th St W, Unit XXXX.  However, the Ketchum Post Office doesn’t advertise that it is the only place in town that actually gets home delivery of mail if the package is labeled to its street address.

And, oddly and unpredictably, sometimes Amazon does deliver to your home.

Bear in mind, even if you have done the addressing right and your package gets to Ketchum Post Office, it can sit there for up to two weeks before it is sorted because the Ketchum Post Office is understaffed.

There is Something The City Hasn’t Tried

The solution to our situation is two-fold. First, Ketchum is big enough to warrant home delivery of mail. If you don’t want home delivery, no problem. Keep paying for your post box. But there is no reason someone living in the United States of America in the 21st Century has crappier mail service than someone in the Ukrainian war zone. I’m there right now, and mail works fine.  

This solution requires a greater investment in the Ketchum Post Office's people. The local and regional postal officials have consistently resisted this, and they will continue to resist unless they are forced to change.

How do we force this change? Calling the regional PO and sending letters have failed. Remember, this has been a problem for over six years.

Let’s Take the USPS to Court

We need to sue the USPS.  This has been proposed (okay, I proposed it).  The response from the City is a load of horse patootie.  They “are working within the system.” “It’s complicated.”   They don’t have “legal standing.”  I call “bullshit.” They’ve had six years!

The City has a post office box, so it has standing.  They have exhausted administrative measures so they can go the legal route.  There is clear harm to all of us. The City could lead a class action suit on our behalf.   

Why Won’t the Troika Go to Bat for Us?   

I don’t think they care about us. Frankly, the Troika acts as if they find locals annoying and distracting. We know that because they have spent six years squeezing out locals.

They are too busy taking away downtown parking that will cost us millions of dollars to replace while building low-income housing on the most valuable land in Idaho to spend any effort on improving the quality of life for the locals they are supposed to represent.  

How else can you explain six years of…nothing?