First selectman sent angry letter to lawmakers about postal service change

NORTH CANAAN — Common sense. Will it prevail in a plan by the U.S. Postal Service for changes in how it handles mail?It all depends on one’s perspective. For North Canaan First Selectman Douglas Humes, a planned approach that aims to save time and money for the postal service will have the opposite effect here. In a letter to U.S. Congressman Chris Murphy (D-5), and Senators Richard Blumenthal and Joseph Lieberman, Humes questioned a plan that seems to him will achieve the exact opposite of its stated goal.Under the new plan, mail for North Canaan will be delivered in bulk to an automated sorting center (probably in Springfield, Mass.), sorted into bins and then delivered to the Falls Village post office. Mail carriers will pick up the bins and head directly out on their routes. Humes noted that the two North Canaan post offices serve a much larger population than the one in Falls Village, and that its clients include many large and small businesses. And then there is the question of what money will be saved by hauling all the North Canaan mail down to Falls Village and back.“It would seem rather redundant to have mail trucks hauling mail, the bulk of which is for North Canaan, come up U.S. Route 44 from Hartford, go past the two post offices in North Canaan, go five or six miles south to Falls Village to have mail sorted, then have the rural carriers bring the sorted mail back to the Canaan post office, then delivered,” Humes wrote in his letter to the legislators.“Where is the savings?” he continued. “More gas being used by the employees, more gas and wear on vehicles doing delivery, not to mention the loss of service, as there may be a good chance citizens would not get their mail in a timely fashion, if at all, more chance to get lost in the shuffle.”A postal service spokesperson told The Journal earlier this month that customers should see no difference in delivery services, but there is local concern anyway — sparked in part by signs in the Canaan post office advising people that incorrect addresses were likely to mean undelivered mail.Humes went on to suggest that common sense would dictate the answer to rising fuel costs is to reduce vehicle mileage.He has since heard back from Murphy, who promised to look into the matter, but advised that the postal service is not a government agency.