The U.S. Postal Service has suffered several setbacks in the past few years. Along came Federal Express and United Parcel Service who collectively made a massive bite in the Postal Service’s business and profitability.

Next thing you know, former U.S. Senator and Vice President Al Gore “invents” the Internet. E-mail takes an even bigger cut of the Postal Service’s business and profitability.

The Service’s response has been lay offs, raised rates and less service. This action has rocket fueled an increase in e-mail and alternate package and parcel delivery services. I’m no expert, but it appears that the strategy has failed and is driving them closer and closer to extinction.

In Manning, I have witnessed several actions that I feel are fueling the demise of the delivery dinosaur.

I suspect Times Publishing ranks high in the Manning Post Office’s customer list. We mail a bunch of newspapers to our subscribers each week, 52 times a year. Our volume of mail has to rank higher than most other Manning Postal patrons. We have a lot of interaction with the Post Office. Our customers are also their customers.

The first and foremost problem with the Manning Postal Service is we need a new Post Office. Alcolu, Turbeville and even Davis Station have had upgrades. Poor Manning and Sardinia have been left behind.

I have heard several County officials say that the property where the current Manning Farmer’s Market is located is land that has been set aside for a new facility. I have heard hearsay that Manning was on the list for a new Post Office and the gutless, lowlife scum who brought down the Twin Towers also killed our chances for a new Post Office anytime in the near future.

The rumor persists that the money earmarked for our new Post Office was swept away and used for some other government priority. I have not heard this from a U.S. Postal Service official so I caution you that it is only hearsay. I know that the Manning Farmer’s Market is looking quite comfortable in their temporary home on Boyce Street.

Secondly, the Manning Post Office has two windows for customer service. I frequently pass by to see a long line of frustrated postal patrons waiting their turn at the one window that is open for business.

Ed Frye and Bill Upp work on fixing the Manning Post Office mail box problems.

I’m sure that the reason only one window is open is that the Manning Post Office is not staffed adequately to handle opening two windows. I’m sure the reasons and rationale are valid and necessary. I admit I have not investigated the reasons at all. I have only patiently, with masked frustration, stood in line, only when I absolutely had to conduct business at the window.

Next, in a public relations move that resembles the results Coca-Cola achieved when they abandoned a century old proven winner for the likes of new Coke, the Postal safety authorities mandated that the very popular and well used drive thru mail boxes at the back of the Post Office be moved to a completely congested and non-accessible place of honor in the front of the Post Office.

Once again, I have not talked to any postal authorities on what their specific plans are, but I had digested from what I read in The Manning Times last week and from the coffee shop authorities, it seems that there are not any solutions that are convenient for the patrons that are acceptable to the Postal people. That is until I ran in to Clarendon’s man of vision Ed Frye and Mister Fix-it Bill Upp.

Ed and Bill were outside the covered entrance of The Zone and Cypress Center with measuring tape in hand. “We’ve got the answer to the Post Office’s problem with the mailboxes,” Ed told me.

Ed and Bill mapped and plotted how an island could be built for the mailboxes and people could pull off the road out of the way of traffic to drop off mail. It wouldn’t cost the post office any more money, just a little extra work for the postal person who comes to deliver the mail to the Cypress Center anyway. Ed says the hospital will incur the costs of constructing the island and Bill and his crew will do the work. “It’s a great answer to a community problem,” Frye said. “If we can get the Post Office to go along with it, it will be good for everyone.”

Now that’s what we need in the U.S. Postal System, people with vision that can fix things.