Postal service meets Thursday to form advisory panel

A program that has been used by the United States Postal Service for about 20 years soon will be established in Cape Girardeau.

The public is invited to attend the first organizational meeting to create a USPS Consumer Advisory Council on Thursday at the Cape Girardeau Public Library.

After members are chosen, Consumer Advisory Council meetings will provide a forum for customers to communicate with the postal service, including expressing concerns, ideas and suggestions. Postal officials also will answer questions, discuss rules and clarify procedures, according to a news release from the USPS.

The council will allow input about what the postal service is doing right and what it could be doing better in the community, said Gabrielle Garrean, acting manager of marketing for the USPS Mid America District. If customers have concerns about USPS products or services, they will be able to share those and work with officials to resolve the issues.

The first meeting will introduce the concept of the Consumer Advisory Council and how meetings will be conducted after the council is chosen, she said. Individuals who are interested can apply at the meeting.

Applications will be looked at and those who represent the best cross-sections of the city will be chosen, Garrean said. Applicants can be anyone.

"We want a good feel for our consumer base," she said.

The number of people on the council depends on the community's size and number of responses, Garrean said. Ideally, eight to 10 people are chosen, said U.S. Postal Service regional spokesman Richard Watkins.

A Consumer Advisory Council also is being established in Springfield, Mo.

"We just felt that there was a need in those two communities," and the USPS wanted to get a "better feel" for customers' concerns, Garrean said.

Recent complaints of Cape Girardeau's postal service include late mail delivery, understaffing of the facility at 320 N. Frederick St. and earlier mailbox collection times.

With a decline in the use of first-class mail, changes have been made to postal service.

Changes can be seen in communities such as Cape Girardeau and Springfield, Watkins said. After speaking with the city's postmasters about the potential need for a council, there was a good response, he said.

The council meetings provide a chance for postal service representatives to meet informally with customers who want answers from the local postal service, he said.

"It just makes good sense to bring people in on a regular basis and have those discussions," Watkins said.

Terms on the council run about a year and rotate to new customer representatives, he said.

The organizational meeting for a local Consumer Advisory Council will be at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the public library. Applications for the council also are available at the Cape Girardeau Post Office at 475 Kell Farm Drive.

ashedd@semissourian.com

388-3632

Pertinent address:

711 N. Clark St., Cape Girardeau, MO

320 N. Frederick St., Cape Girardeau, MO

475 Kell Farm Dr., Cape Girardeau, MO

Springfield, MO