KSHB 41 reporter Ryan Gamboa covers Miami County in Kansas and Cass County in Missouri. He also covers agricultural topics. Share your story idea with Ryan.
Sadie Stiles posted to Facebook over the weekend in an interaction she says took place with her local postmaster.
"The last time I got my mail, Penny brought it to me," Stiles told KSHB 41. "Other than that, I haven't received my mail since Valentine's Day."
The Facebook post is footage from her in-store video camera, where the local postmaster explains her options for receiving her mail.
Her problems began following major Sixth Street construction in Osawatomie, Kan.
United States Postal Service mail carriers had difficulties delivering to businesses in the construction zone.
Stiles and others adapted, forwarding mail to their homes or picking up at the post office.
"I'm caught in between the city," she said. "I have a brand new street and I like the fact we have this amazing street with brand new sidewalks."
When the construction was completed at the end of 2024, Stiles requested to have postal deliveries made to her shop.
"It happened for a few weeks," explained Stiles.
But after a few weeks, the deliveries stopped.
When her issues were not resolved, Stiles filed a formal complaint with USPS, hoping it would put her in contact with someone above the local level. She was put in contact via email again with the local postmaster.
She was given a few options: Put a mailbox on the curb, purchase a local post office box, pick up mail at the post office, or the City of Osawatomie could put a centralized box out for businesses.
Stiles provided KSHB 41 with USPS's response to her complaint.
The postmaster cited safety concerns on the new road for the mail carriers.
"As part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring the safety and efficiency of mail delivery, we have conducted a review of delivery routes and mailbox placements in the area," the postmaster's response stated. "It has come to our attention that the current location of your mail receptacle poses safety challenges for our letter carriers, such as no safe place to park with the new design of the city sidewalk. The carrier would have to stop in the busy city street and risk getting rear ended by traffic."
As Stiles' frustrations grew, she recognized nearby business were also impacted.
The Osawatomie Chamber of Commerce met with KSHB 41, representing a handful of businesses along Sixth Street impacted by the postal service changing delivery options.
"There's still a lot of irregularities in delivery that the businesses are saying, 'You know, we need to be able to receive our payments, we need to be able to find invoices, send them out,' and they're not getting their mail delivered," Executive Director Shay Hanysak explained. "There doesn't seem to be a lot of cooperation and that's going on."
Stiles said city leaders would not permit the postal service's request to put a box on the street.
The new street, soon to be covered with sod, has utilities inputs beneath it and new streetlights will soon be built.
Osawatomie City Manager Bret Glendening told KSHB 41 News Reporter Ryan Gamboa in an email this is the first time USPS has put these restrictions on customers during construction. He also doesn't believe there is a regulation that would permit them to do this.
"We have had little communication with the USPS," he said. "They stopped delivering mail altogether early on in the project. Their drivers would drive the wrong way through the construction zone. One of them was pulled over by our PD. After that, the deliveries stopped and everyone had to drive to the post office to pick their mail up. The only communication we have had with the USPS is when one of their customers (and our residents) calls me and asks for help in trying to resolve the issue."
According to Glendening, the postmaster told him USPS will deliver mail in the same manner it did before the project, but they tell residents something different.
"It's so frustrating," Stiles said. "I want it delivered to my location. It was delivered that way before."
USPS rolled out a 2025 plan to optimize operations in the area. It would create a number of changes that would guarantee a large percentage of customer mail would arrive on time.
That plan has yet to take effect in rural communities, including Humboldt, Kansas, 50 miles south of Osawatomie.
City Administrator, Cole Herder sent a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on February 17, 2025.
In the letter, provided by Herder to KSHB 41, he expresses the communities struggles with current USPS operations.
Herder told KSHB 41 News Reporter Ryan Gamboa in a phone interview the city has long used billing postcards. With the city's reliability concerns with the postal service, the city now offers an online option.
"Those first-class letters take 10 to 14 days to deliver or not delivered at all," Herder wrote. "We've heard numerous accounts of mail with checks enclosed, causing late fees and discontinuation of services for nonpayment because mail was not delivered."
In the phone call with Gamboa, Herder also shared an instance where a local family mailed their wedding invitations that ended up lost. He said the couple was under the impression the letters were mailed.
Guests did not show up to the wedding.
"This entire thing could be so simple," Stiles said.
For the delivery issues in Osawatomie, Glendening told KSHB 41 the only viable solution is for the USPS to admit the mistake and deliver the mail as they did previously.
In the videos posted on Facebook by Stiles, the woman she identifies as the Paola, Kan., postmaster says, 'If the City Manager has a problem with it, he can deliver the mail."'
KSHB 41 sent emails with questions to the postal service regarding the delivery issues in rural communities.
We did not receive a response.
