The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

In a recent conversation with a friend, he mentioned that years ago one could mail a letter in Nassau and it would be received within a week! This bit of nostalgia is even more remarkable because this week I received a 2021 calendar that was post marked March 2021.

Now we all know the saga of the General Post Office building that seemed to be in a state of disrepair for decades and how that affected the delivery of mail for more years than I want to recall. But apart from the unhealthy conditions that postal employees had to work in, they seemed to muddle through while the higher ups felt no pressure to deal with the situation. If it had not been for the explosion of the internet and email, the country would have gone back into the dark ages.

So that begs the question about the idea of building a permanent post office building that was floated by Transport and Housing Minister Jobeth Coleby-Davis, why we would invest in a new post office building, when the government’s track record for maintenance is so poor, for a service that we have gotten accustomed to not having?

To make my point, was that fact that the post office had to spend thousands of dollars in newspaper advertising, rather than using their own postal system, to send out notices to the public that box rentals were due.

To my mind it would make more sense to support the employees who provide this necessary service in a building whose maintenance bills the taxpayers do not have to foot, then pay for the building’s implosion after a few decades of use.

JOANNE SMITH

Nassau,

December 4, 2021.