The US Post Office at Barrow is a wonderful place! (Kotzebue: employment, purchase)

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by puff5655

Get over it, or get the heck out.

Dead on! Ain't that the truth.

I haven't been to Nuiqsut for nearly ten years now. It was always a fun place to go, but I don't think I ever went to the Post Office there. The school and the Alascom earth station co-located with ASTAC are about the only places I went. I did have a few meals at whatever that camp was back then.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

I know, Floyd. I just get tired of seeing threads ruined and closed by mean spirited crap. Stiff, at least, knows exactly what he is doing and he knows that be trolling certain threads, he can get them shut down. Eves at least has the excuse of being bat**** crazy.

Yep!

edit: the "excuse" might just apply to them both, I'm beginning to think.

[dradiin]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

Also is there mail delivery to residences in Barrow or does everyone come to the post office to pick up their mail?

Umm unless i am mistaken, everyone in Barrow goes to the Po to get there mail. P.O. boxes.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by Barkingowl

Thanks. Your post office looks remarkably similar to the post office nearest to my home. I like the long counter that separates the clerks from the rest of the branch. The one at our post office is filled with cubbyholes with different forms on them. Barrow's makes more sense because you can put a heavy package on top of it & slide it along. Does Barrow's post office have the automated postal center machines?

There are cubby holes in that one too, but they have a glass plate on top. The cubby holes are on both sides too.

The supervisor at our branch apparently earns her yearly bonus by putting the carriers on an efficiency scale. They are supposed to have a set amount of time to deliver the mail & if they take longer the supervisor's bonus goes down. Do you know if Barrow's supervisor has something similar?

I'm sure there have been edicts to reduce staffing. At one time there were at least two people who did nothing but wait on customers, and they used to be open from 8 AM until after 6 PM, and on Saturdays. They've slowly cut all of that back. Nobody is permanently assigned only to the front counter; they close for an hour at lunch and are only open for 8 hours a day in order to run exactly 1 shift with everybody there at exactly the same times. They've probably cut the manning by 4 or 5 people over the past 5 years.

Also is there mail delivery to residences in Barrow or does everyone come to the post office to pick up their mail?

No delivery at all. That has always been true in bush Alaska. By the same token we do not pay a rental fee for a PO Box. But we suffer because a lot of places refuse to ship to a PO Box. On eBay it is not uncommon for sellers to simply refuse to ship to Alaska and Hawaii at all, no matter how.

We actually do have a pretty darn good Post Office here in Barrow, and it is almost totally the "fault" of the people who work there! The effort they have put into making the Post Officer here work, regardless of the restraints put on them, has always been fantastic.

[AADAD]

The tradition widely accepted in the western culture of having your mail delivered is widely seen as an invasion of privacy in the native cultures. accordingly, the post office in rural locations has thousands of post office boxes where mail is picked up. in the Navajo Nation it is considered most rude to come to someones hogan without an invitation and ruder yet to knock on the door. Western doctors and nurses typically show up to see a patient and park about 200 yards away. if the patient wants to see the nurse or doctor they come out and invite them in. the sense of space (and time) is fundamentally different in the two cultures. space is seen as a continuum of relationship between people and the earth is the communication link in native cultures. in western culture not so. space is seen as distance from another and the connection comes from telephone and in this case having mail delivered to your front door = a connection to other people. this difference is seen in many subtle ways e.g. information is accessible in native cultures and available to be shared where in western culture information is restricted and given to certain people who need to know, the first being centered around community (the post office) and the second being focused on the individual(mail delivery to an individual)

funny huh? =)

[dhoo]

I saw my aunt! ahaha! now i have an idea on how people dress in barrow just like here during winter

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by dhoo

I saw my aunt! ahaha! now i have an idea on how people dress in barrow just like here during winter

Yep. And yep again!

(I thought you'd like that picture. I have a couple that are closer up, but I didn't like them that much, so they don't get posted even though I was tempted just because there is one that shows both of the clerks with obvious smiles, and one of your aunt alone up close that has a smile. Alas, I didn't want to post too many pictures, and those didn't make the cut. I almost relented when one of the jerks said nobody was smiling, but he's just a jerk and not worth much effort.)

[gobrien]

Originally Posted by AADAD

The tradition widely accepted in the western culture of having your mail delivered is widely seen as an invasion of privacy in the native cultures. accordingly, the post office in rural locations has thousands of post office boxes where mail is picked up. in the Navajo Nation it is considered most rude to come to someones hogan without an invitation and ruder yet to knock on the door. Western doctors and nurses typically show up to see a patient and park about 200 yards away. if the patient wants to see the nurse or doctor they come out and invite them in. the sense of space (and time) is fundamentally different in the two cultures. space is seen as a continuum of relationship between people and the earth is the communication link in native cultures. in western culture not so. space is seen as distance from another and the connection comes from telephone and in this case having mail delivered to your front door = a connection to other people. this difference is seen in many subtle ways e.g. information is accessible in native cultures and available to be shared where in western culture information is restricted and given to certain people who need to know, the first being centered around community (the post office) and the second being focused on the individual(mail delivery to an individual)

funny huh? =)

While I like mail brought to me, I do like the respect for privacy that you describe. They don't deliver mail in Delta Junction either, and it's on the road system.

[tigre79]

Originally Posted by gobrien

They don't deliver mail in Delta Junction either, and it's on the road system.

Same here. I think mailboxes would get in the way of snow removal and be more trouble than they're worth around here. And unless it was really waterproof your mail would get wet all the time.

[dhoo]

Originally Posted by Floyd_Davidson

Yep. And yep again!

(I thought you'd like that picture. I have a couple that are closer up, but I didn't like them that much, so they don't get posted even though I was tempted just because there is one that shows both of the clerks with obvious smiles, and one of your aunt alone up close that has a smile. Alas, I didn't want to post too many pictures, and those didn't make the cut. I almost relented when one of the jerks said nobody was smiling, but he's just a jerk and not worth much effort.)

You know what Sir Floyd, Your Post Office is much better than ours here! haha!