Residents frustrated with post office hours

When Madera’s newest postmaster is sworn in Friday, he may encounter fewer welcoming patrons than one might expect. A steady stream of residents say they tried the door into the Madera post office retail lobby at midday Saturday, only to find it locked. Some shook their heads in resignation and others left expressing disgust. Longtime Madera resident Gloria Medina said the hours signs were confusing and wondered aloud why the retail lobby was always locked on Saturdays when other postal locations, in Fresno, for example, were open for business. “Now I have to drive all the way to Fresno if I want this posted today,” she said. “The hours here are terrible. The lines are so long on Mondays here they are out the door, so that’s not an option. Why can’t we have a decent post office in Madera, and with a (full service) postal machine in this lobby?” According to Medina, the building hadn’t changed much in the last 50 years, and the hours and services have not kept pace with the times or improved much either. “And the (lack of) parking! Oh, just forget it,” she said. Medina said she was appalled that residents had resorted to sliding outgoing mail between or under the front glass doors on to the floor during weekends, or more lately onto a canvas cart that had been pushed against the front doors to catch the mail. “My husband won’t let me do that, because he says it’s not secure. So if we have to post something, we drive to north Fresno,” Medina said. “Nobody seems to care here. Why can’t Madera have better hours, parking and a nicer post office like other places? Some people don’t even have cars and they walk all the way here on Saturdays to take care of business, just to be turned away.” Several large U.S. Postal Service signs prominently affixed to the glass lobby doors ask “Did We Deliver?” — apparently to solicit public comments — but only listed an inoperable website at Postal experience.com/pos and no phone number.