‘Bigger than Owens Cross Roads:' US Postal Service needs major fix, Rep. Dale Strong says

U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Monrovia, continues to voice frustration about problems involving the U.S. Postal Service. And it is not limited to the inability to find a location for a new post office in the Owens Cross Roads area. 'It's bigger than Owens Cross Roads,' Strong said following his Washington update to the Huntsville Chamber last week at the Von Braun Center. 'This right here involves north Alabama and to be honest with you, it's throughout the United States.' The Congressman pointed to the postal service's net loss of $25 billion over the last three years, including $8 billion in 2025. 'It's a broken system,' Strong said. 'If you look at it, we don't have enough rural mail carriers to carry the amount of mail with the growth that we've had. It's not just in one or two areas, it's throughout Alabama as a whole.' Strong is the lead sponsor of Postal Executive Responsibility, Fiscal Oversight, and Results-based Management (PERFORM) Act, which would tie the Postmaster General's compensation to the Postal Service's mail delivery and financial performance. The act has the backing if every member of the Alabama congressional delegation. 'We've got a postmaster general who is over the United States,' Strong said. 'He got a $200,000 bonus. That is totally unacceptable. What we really want to do is see if we can get him before a committee and answer some questions. Accountability is crucial.' Strong points to a 2011 decision to move the processing center out of North Alabama to Birmingham as a cause to many of the delays in the delivery of mail residents in his district have been experiencing. 'That has led to more problems,' Strong said, saying a processing center needed to be moved back to the area. Strong also said many postal facilities are not up to date, don't have enough parking or staffing. He also said rural letter carriers were having to sort through mail and packages under tents in the rain. Those are some of the problems that have plagued the post office in the Owens Cross Roads area. Officials and residents have said the population has outgrown the facility, which has led to efforts to build a new facility in a new location. But those efforts have stalled when a deal for property for a new location on U.S. 431 fell through. Strong said the problems with the postal service 'have been going on for quite some time.' 'We're in the process of trying to solve it,' he said. In addition to being involved in the effort to build a new post office in the Owens Cross Roads area, Strong secured a USPS Office of Inspector General audit of mail delivery performance, staffing levels, and operational bottlenecks affecting north Alabama in the Fiscal Year 2027 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations Act. He also directed USPS to review unique ZIP Code designations for communities including Priceville and Skyline to better reflect municipal boundaries and improve service.