ALLENTOWN, Ga. — In Allentown, people are frustrated about mail service. That's the little town split among four counties, mostly in Wilkinson County.
They say post office hours and delays are causing late bills and late medicine.
When the people of Allentown check their mailboxes most times, they don't know what to expect.
"We just never know when the mail is going to be here and a lot of people through this community get their medicine through their post office," Bobby Greene said.
Greene is one of the people having problems with the postal service that's open for only one hour a day.
Inside, signs with conflicting times are posted and on days like Friday, there's no one inside to help.
"There's no set time. Sometimes it is up by 8:30 or 9 o'clock, sometimes it’s up by 4:30 , 5 o'clock or 6 o’clock, and sometimes it’s not up at all," he said.
Greene says he's even had to go as far as calling about bills to avoid running late on payment waiting on the mail.
Allentown's mayor Charles Brack says he's heard that story time and time again.
"I will get two or three people a day who will call me and ask me what time the post office is going to be open," Mayor Brack said.
From there, he calls another post office who will give the expected hours.
When someone arrives, the hours are short, and the worker may just drop off mail with no window service, leaving people to go 20 miles to the nearest office.
"When you have people who work outside of Allentown and they have a package or something, and she's only open from 11 to 2, they can’t get the package and some of these packages are medicine, a lot of people get medicine in the mail," Brack said.
Brack says they don't want to lose the only post office they have but Greene wants to see changes.
"I would like to see them hire a person like we have had in the past and be here from 8 to 12 and everybody would know their mall would be up by 11 o'clock. Their medicine would be here, the mail would be here, the bills would be here," Greene said.
Brack says he's written to Representative Austin Scott about the issues.
We reached out to the United States postal service, their statement reads:
“The Postal Service continues to provide delivery service to the Allentown, GA community. Local postal management is aware of customer concerns and is taking immediate steps to ensure retail service is available.”