By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats Post Office, which shut Tuesday afternoon and early Wednesday, is not closing but is struggling like most post offices on the Oregon coast with staffing issues.
Yachats Postmaster Jeff Davis retired July 30 after 10 years in Yachats and nearly 35 years with the Postal Service.
Chanda Wall, who works at the Waldport Post Office and lives in Yachats, was then assigned to oversee the Yachats Post Office and work with longtime clerk Angie Bagby. But Wall had to return to Waldport when its postmaster, Peter Roina, took a position in Bend. The Waldport office has had a hiring freeze for 18 months.
That left Bagby by herself in Yachats – until she began a long-scheduled vacation at 1 p.m. Tuesday. There was no one available to keep the office open, so she posted a closed sign.
Davis came in to help briefly early Wednesday and employees from the Newport Post Office arrived at 10 a.m. Wednesday — an hour after normal opening — to handle the front desk. But the substitutes are not able to take cash for transactions, only credit or debit cards.
Newport employees are expected to be in Yachats full-time until Bagby returns. Front desk hours are now expected to be the same – 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and then 2-4 p.m. weekdays.
“When one office is able to assist we do whatever we can,” said Newport Postmaster Josh Ottoway. “There should not be any impact whatsoever.”
Davis told YachatsNews that Bagby hadn’t taken her annual leave since April 2019 because of coronavirus and other staffing issues.
Davis, who said he was free to talk now that he is retired, said the Postal Service was struggling to find someone from another office to come to Yachats and work alone for two weeks in an unfamiliar office. A call to a Postal Service communications supervisor in Seattle was not returned Thursday
The Yachats Post Office is supposed to have a postmaster and two clerks, Davis said. But the office had only been staffed like that for two of the 10 years he was postmaster, Davis told YachatsNews.
The staffing issues in Yachats and Waldport have nothing to do with the impending Oct. 31 closure of a contract station in Seal Rock. The holder of that contract is retiring and the Postal Service is no longer actively seeking contracts with people to accept mail and rent mailboxes.
The other major factor in finding someone to staff or oversee the Yachats Post Office is affordable housing on the coast. Bagby lost her rental house in Yachats this year when the owner decided to sell, but was able to buy a house in Florence and now commutes 23 miles to work.
Postal Service employees twice came from Wisconsin to work in Yachats, Davis said, but both left because they could not find affordable housing nearby. A third employee from Junction City and a fourth from Bandon had the same issues.
Davis said a constant turnover in supervisors in Portland is hampering local Post Office operations, especially in rural areas.
“They don’t understand these long-term problems,” Davis said. “In my entire career this is the worst I’ve ever seen.”
If they have two helpers and pay for housing, travel and food expense, someone might want to go help