Oct. 26, 2007 — Three St. John U.S. Postal Service employees are being transferred to St. Thomas, leaving an already beleaguered staff with fewer people to do the job, St. John Administrator Leona Smith said.
"We're already faced with delays and the island is growing," Smith said.
She pointed out that the busy holiday season is nearly here, and that the influx of winter visitors increases demands on postal workers.
Smith said that mail is now being put into post office boxes around 3 p.m. instead of the proscribed 11 a.m.
More information from postal and union officials was unavailable because calls weren't returned, phones went unanswered and in the case of the Postal Service spokeswoman in Puerto Rico, the number is now a fax number.
Smith asked that the three employees not be named because she feared the post office would retaliate against them. She said two of them live on St. John and the third on St. Thomas.
She said the three workers were told they are going to work at Cyril E. King Airport on St. Thomas starting Nov. 10, with the workday beginning at 4 a.m. The earliest ferry leaves St. John at 6 a.m.
It remains unclear how the two St. John-based workers will get to work and who will pay the transportation costs. All three are long-term employees at the St. John post office.
A total of 10 people, including the three employees to be transferred, work at the Cruz Bay post office.
The transferees were told the Cruz Bay post office had too many employees.
St. John's long-promised new post office, needed to relieve congestion at the existing post office in Cruz Bay, is still a long way from the drawing board.
The Hoboken, N.J.-based real estate manager, Tom Pino, recently retired. His replacement, Paul Tyburski, said he was new to the job and just learning about the project.
"I'm not up to speed," he said.
Various locations were kicked around, with the latest on land near Enighed Pond. Pino had announced at a meeting Feb. 13 that the Postal Service was just about to sign a lease with Boyson Inc. to build a facility on its land to lease to the Postal Service.
Cheryl Boynes Jackson at Boyson Inc. was off-island and could not be reached for comment
Back Talk
Share your reaction to this news with other Source readers. Please include headline, your name and city and state/country or island where you reside.
