“Yes, we have had problems,” Darci Mersch said Friday.

“For instance, I put my mail in the mailbox Friday. They didn’t come Friday. They didn’t come Saturday. They came at 8 o’clock Monday night.”

Mersch lives on a farm just a few miles from Clare, the small northern Webster County town where the post office has a drop box, but limited open hours. If a mailing is important, it’s not out of the ordinary for her to drive it to Fort Dodge, 12 miles away.

Waiting for the mail to arrive is another story.

“Lately, our mail doesn’t come until 7 o’clock at night,” she said. “We very seldom get Saturday mail, of course that’s when The Messenger comes. I’m rambling because it’s a sore subject.”

Yes, she understands the holidays and weather impacted mail delivery. But the problems, she said, started way before Christmas.

“It’s just so frustrating,” she said.

The Messenger reached out to the U.S. Postal Service and was asked to give a bulleted list of questions to be answered. Here is the list of questions asked:

• When the Fort Dodge Post Office is fully staffed, what is that number of employees?

• At this time, how many of those positions need to be filled? (I have heard you typically have 28 staff, but are operating with only 21.)

• What impact does that have on the process of delivering residential mail in Fort Dodge and out into Webster County? (It’s my understanding that there are pockets of the county in which, particularly during winter weather impacts, residential customers can go for extended periods of time without mail delivery.)

• Would you detail how you distribute the workforce in cases of not being fully staffed?

• Can you say what has been the cause of having vacancies in the workforce? Retirement? Illness? Lack of applicants? Postal union?

• What actions are you taking to fill the gaps in the Fort Dodge Post Office workforce until your staff numbers reflect being fully staffed?

• How can the community help?

The Messenger was referred to Mark Inglett, strategic communications specialist, who is based in Kansas City, Missouri. Here is his response:

“The Fort Dodge Post Office currently has 72 employees, and we have immediate opportunities for those interested in starting a new career with the Postal Service.

“When mail service issues occur, we take steps to quickly resolve customer concerns. We gladly work to address any specific issue from the community when brought to our attention and we encourage customers to reach out to their local postal station. Customers can also go to our website usps.com and click on ‘Contact us’ at the bottom of our homepage, or utilize this direct web address: https://usps.force.com/emailus/s/.

“As part of our Delivering for America Plan, the Postal Service is growing, with new facilities, equipment and technologies as online shopping and shipping continue to increase and package growth expands.

“Right now, we are looking for committed and motivated individuals to join us in our mission of service to your local community and the nation by processing and delivering the mail.

“The Postal Service offers competitive wages and benefits, and career advancement opportunities. Accepting a position with the United States Postal Service is the first step to starting a long, fulfilling career with a dynamic, forward-thinking organization committed to delivering for the American people. We continue to hold career fairs to promote our hiring efforts. To learn more or to attend an upcoming career fair, visit us at www.usps.com/careers.”

That response doesn’t provide the kind of immediate relief customers like Mersch would like.

“After we didn’t get mail for three days, we have a big mailbox and it’s full. And we’ve got other people’s mail,” she said.

“There was a time when we were getting mail on Sundays after dark.”

She longs for the time when they had a mail carrier who was reliable. Unfortunately, she retired.

Asked Friday if the problems were still ongoing, she responded, “It just happened this week.”

And, she said, the delivery problems extend into the Fort Dodge city routes, where she has many friends and relatives.

“It’s like, people, are you short of help?”