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Letters are winding their way rom Fargo, Washington, South America, China and beyond for a special postmark .
The Loveland, CO, Post Office is at it again — stamping Valentines from around the world with its famous postmark featuring Cupid and a love verse.
It’s the 63rd year of the popular program sponsored by the Loveland Post Office and Chamber of Commerce.
Loveland has the largest Valentine re-mailing program of any Post Office or community in the world.
More than 200,000 cards and letters were handled last year, from 100+ countries and all 50 states. More than 12 million valentines have been re-mailed by Loveland since the program started in 1947.
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Four Congressional representatives have sponsored resolution calling for the U.S. Postal Service to “take all appropriate measures” to maintain its six-day-a-week delivery schedule.
Led by Rep. Sam Graves R-MO), Nick Rahall, (D-WV); Chris Smith, (R-NJ); and Zoe Lofgren, (D-CA), the non-binding resolution HRes 173 expresses the sense of the House that the USPS stay with this schedule and not try to cut it back in an attempt to try to save money.
The proposed resolution has been referred to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
No other financial relief was proposed by the four.
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Erick Keskey is a Customer Connect Coordinator for the Northland District. He was in Sparta, WI, to make a kickoff presentation to the local city carriers.
Sparta is also the home of the Fort McCoy military base.
Dressed in his carrier uniform, he had loaded his car and stepped back into the hotel to grab a cup of coffee before heading out. He turned from the coffee pot to leave, and there was a soldier, dressed in fatigues, holding out his hand. As the two shook hands, the soldier said “Thanks for making my mom cry.”
Keskey was understandably confused. He explained that he did not work at the local Post Office, and if he had ever made someone cry he was pretty sure that he would have remembered it. The soldier smiled and said “it wasn’t really you, and my mom doesn’t live here, either.” He went on to explain how a letter carrier delivered the gifts he had sent from Iraq on Christmas Eve. His mom had dropped to her knees on the living room floor and cried tears of joy.
“I was dumbfounded,” Keskey says. “A person who put his life on the line, living halfway around the world, for more than a year and he was thanking me? I got a little choked up and told him that I should be the one offering thanks. It was one of my proudest moments as a postal employee.
“So my wish is that every one of us has the opportunity to make someone’s mom cry.”
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SANCHEZ: Here’s another story we think is fascinating, so we’ve decided to not only cover it, we’ve decided to have some of our special investigations unit folks look into this case. There’s a good possibility something like this might make you a little bit irritated. Maybe even a little bit mad. Let’s start with a picture. Look at this house. This is a house that’s worth $1.2 million. Somebody who worked at the postal office lived in this house. So they wanted to relocate this guy. And they decided the only way they could relocate him is to buy his house from him and then they’d try to sell it so he can move somewhere else. That’s an indoor swimming pool, by the way. Guess how much his house cost? $1.2 million that they are taking on. In this economy.
Abbie Boudreau is joining us now from the SIU unit. Wow. It’s a sweet deal for him. Who wouldn’t want in this economy for someone to give him market value for this home. Since no one seems to be able to get it. Can you do us a favor? Pretend you’re a realtor. Take us through this thing. What kind of house is this, by the way?
ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is an absolutely gorgeous house.<br/><br/>
SANCHEZ: Let’s go to the videotape.
BOUDREAU: It’s $1.2 million. Five acres.
SANCHEZ: Look at this. Look at that picture. What’s with the lake?
BOUDREAU: It’s a lake front property. This neighborhood is isn’t where people go for summer homes. But there you can see the indoor swimming pool.
SANCHEZ: I’ve got one of those. Not.
BOUDREAU: Of course, we all do. No, it’s an absolutely gorgeous house. It’s about 30 minutes away from Columbia, South Carolina. And like I said, it’s five acres. You know, it was originally on the market for $2.9 million. And then it was reappraised by the U.S. Postal Service for $1.2 million. That’s what they purchased it for.
SANCHEZ: This is the U.S. Postal Service. It gets a little complicated when we try to explain it. They don’t get your taxes but they are commissioned to sell stamps, which we all have to buy, and then they take that money and do what it is they want with it. In this case buying and trying to sell a $1.2 million house. Shouldn’t they have a limit on how much they’re going to buy from their employees to relocate them? Doesn’t that make sense?
BOUDREAU: Now they do, as of two weeks ago when we called and talked to them and they told us, oh, yes, we’re having …
SANCHEZ: Well done.
BOUDREAU: I can’t take credit for that. But I will tell you, it’s a coincidence.
SANCHEZ: What’s the cap now.
BOUDREAU: The cap now is $1 million.
SANCHEZ: Still kind of high.
BOUDREAU: Well, it is, yes. It’s pretty high. Considering the Food and Drug Administration is capped at $330,000. But can I also add a little bit of how this works?
SANCHEZ: Yes.
BOUDREAU: USPS has a contract with the Cartus Relocation. That’s a government contractor. That’s how it works. Cartus actually deals with the details to buy and sell.
SANCHEZ: It’s not that you couldn’t understand like that might not happen in the past. Sometimes stories are good because they’re timely. In this economy, in these times, with Wall Street as we’re looking at it right now, pretty much flat, down almost 300 yesterday. You look at this and you go, it doesn’t make sense.
BOUDREAU: Are they going to be able to resell the house at this point?
SANCHEZ: Good luck. For $1.2 million in this economy? Who’s going to buy it.
BOUDREAU: Well, it’s the most expensive home purchase in a two county area in that region. Also, the Postal Service said we try to come out even. When we buy a house, we want to resell it and we want to come out even. We know that’s not the case. On average they lose about $58,000 per house. And of course that adds up.
SANCHEZ: Let us know. You’re going to follow up on this?
BOUDREAU: Absolutely.
SANCHEZ: We’ll keep checking back with you. I bet you it might be awhile. Just a hunch. Abbie Boudreau, thanks for being with us.
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February employment figures filed by the US Postal Service show career staffing levels are down 4.4% from a year ago. The decline of 29,960 was across the board, affecting all employee categories. The largest decline was in the clerk craft, down 6.7% for a loss of 13,405 jobs. The smaller mailhandler craft suffered a loss of 3,144 jobs, or 5.5%. There were 10,337 fewer career city carriers, a drop of 4.8%.
Job categories which had shown increases in earlier periods also showed declines in the current report, with Headquarters shedding 4.7% of its positions, or 135 jobs, and the Office of the Inspector General losing 12, or 1%. Non-career transitional carrier jobs were down by 222 positions, or 1.5%. Rural carriers showed the smallest decline, down 137 jobs or 0.2%.
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March 8th, 2009UncategorizedLetters are winding their way rom Fargo, Washington, South America, China and beyond for a special postmark .