Residents in some south metro suburbs are still fed up with mail delays

Lisa Makowski’s neighbors don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything, but there’s one issue many can get behind.

“One of the biggest problems in Lakeville, Minnesota, is that people don’t get their mail,” she said.

There are those, like Makowski, who occasionally open their mailbox to find neighbors’ packages. But perhaps the most common gripe about mail in the 76,000-person suburb is that it sometimes doesn’t arrive for days.

“I’m of the generation [that expects] mail to come whether it’s raining or windy or snowing,” she said. “That is simply not true in Lakeville.”

For years, residents of Lakeville, Apple Valley, Eagan and other south metro communities have complained about widespread service delays — of three, four, even five days. And the problem persists, neighbors say, with many losing hope that their mail will ever be reliably delivered.

A recent performance report found only 79% of first-class, two-day mail in the Minnesota-North Dakota region arrived on time. That’s eight points below the national target of 87% set by the Postal Service.

In a statement, a USPS spokesman maintained that mail delivery service in the south metro is current and on time, noting that the service acts swiftly to resolve resident complaints when they arise at post offices, through online forms and on social media.

“The Postal Service is committed to providing the best possible service to our customers,” the statement reads.

The ongoing complaints come at a precarious time for the USPS. President Donald Trump has suggested privatizing the 250-year-old service or placing it under the Commerce Department’s control, a prospect that’s put some Minnesota Democrats on edge.

“If the Postal Service becomes like a private company, I can promise you it’s going to become unaffordable, and the closing of rural post offices will be right behind that decision,” said Rep. Angie Craig, who’s long pressed the USPS to improve delivery in her south metro district.

But for some Minnesotans, frustration with the Postal Service is less about the current political moment than an accepted — and aggravating — part of life.

“I’ve never experienced gaps in mail until I moved to Lakeville,” Makowski said.

Ashton Oram knew something was wrong the moment he saw the package.

It was March, and the Lakeville resident had ordered 55 chicks from Iowa for his hobby farm. The delivery became separated in transit — something he said had never happened before.

The first shipment of 20 chicks arrived in a swift 24 hours, the box resounding as usual with high-pitched chirping. But when Oram went to the post office two days later to collect the second batch, the box of birds was silent.

“Everybody knew they were not live chicks,” he said.

The Iowa hatchery told Oram it shipped the chicks in one bundle. That’s led him to believe USPS split the order, and the birds in the second box died from the cold en route to Minnesota.

“It’s sad that I had everything prepared for them, and I didn’t get [35] chicks,” he said. “Now we’re just set back.”

Craig said she’s heard from other residents about missed deliveries, including from veterans whose prescription drugs didn’t arrive on time and business owners who missed payments due to tardy mail.

Stephanie Thaler’s husband counts on the on-time delivery of payments for the tire business he runs. Delayed mail service has occasionally placed the Lakeville couple in a bind.

“There can be tens of thousands of dollars worth of checks that he’s waiting on,” she said. “Waiting 10 days isn’t convenient when you’re a small business owner.”

Many residents say the city’s post office badly needs renovation. Located in a strip mall off Holyoke Avenue, the building serves a community that’s experienced tremendous population growth.

“They’re just building all over the place,” said Cindra Cellini. “I don’t know how they’re going to keep up with all the people if they don’t start upgrading [the post office.]”

Cellini said her experience with the Postal Service has improved since moving to Lakeville five years ago. Back then, carriers would routinely stuff a huge stack of envelopes in her mailbox after missing delivery for days.

The pattern prompted her husband to take action: Like scores of Minnesotans miffed about the mail, he reached out to Craig.

In her six years in office, Craig has made USPS reform one of her marquee issues.

She inspected post offices in Eagan, Prior Lake and Lakeville after reports highlighted the plight of overburdened carriers. She delivered thousands of resident complaints about poor service to former U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. And she pushed the USPS Office of Inspector General to investigate the state’s entire mail service.

The results of that audit, released in June, presented a damning picture: The Minnesota-North Dakota district was short roughly 550 employees and 100,000 pieces of mail were delayed across facilities on one day alone.

Recent developments at the federal level have only compounded Craig’s concerns. DeJoy, who resigned in March, gave Elon Musk and his so-called Department of Government Efficiency the green light to find “further efficiencies” at the USPS and cut 10,000 workers and billions from its budget.

With the Postal Service’s future uncertain, Craig remains intent on fixing its problems at the local level. Her proposal is to boost staff levels and push local management to increase morale among carriers, many of whom report grueling work schedules.

Until then, the congresswoman said she’ll keep calling attention to the problems.

“I’m not letting up on USPS until our service levels start to go up and my constituents start to get their damn mail on time,” she said.