The post office in Fort Yukon, a town of about 600 people on the Yukon River about 145 air miles northeast of Fairbanks, reopened this week after a five-day closure amid complaints about unpredictable hours and turnover.
Fort Yukon, U.S. Rep. Don Young's adopted hometown, relies on the post office for everything from medications to food to money. And like many other rural towns in Alaska, it suffers from spotty mail service.
The post office was closed the week of April 10, according to Dawn Peppinger, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Service. Otherwise, the office has had what Peppinger called "intermittent service."
The agency flew in relief from Eagle for three weeks and rotated other workers. The office's postmaster had already resigned in mid-March after working in Fort Yukon for about six months.
The closure left some Fort Yukon residents scrambling to file tax returns. Sarah Knudson, 68, joined other tax filers forced to shell out at least $210 to fly to Fairbanks and get financial paperwork to her accountant at H&R Block.
Life is hard enough in the Bush, said Knudson, who's married to a city councilor. Milk costs $8.50 a gallon. Fewer than half the homes in Fort Yukon have computers or internet service, according to the city manager.
Everything has to be flown in -- or mailed.
"They put a hardship on us," Knudson said. "We can't get our stuff from Amazon. People can't get their medication."
A month earlier, other residents flew out just to complete Permanent Fund dividend filings, locals say.
The ongoing problems at the post office came to the attention of Young, as well as U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, last Friday. That's when city manager Shawn Phillips issued a plea for help in emails to the media and elected officials.
The post office was closed about five to six weeks in the past six to seven months, according to the city manager's email.
"The lack of the postal service is jeopardizing the health and safety of some of our residents," Phillips wrote. "Many residents also receive their money in the form of paper checks and with the lack of the postal service many families are being impacted financially, missing necessary medications, paying high rates for freight shipping for groceries and causing hardships."
Murkowski's office contacted the Postal Service on Monday, Phillips said. Young's office also reached out to USPS, spokesman Matt Shuckerow said in an email.
Fort Yukon joins a long list of towns that have struggled to keep reliable mail going. A temporary fill-in who opened the post office Tuesday said she'd recently done the same thing in Kobuk and Galena. The postal service in 2014 announced shorter hours for rural Alaska offices.
The city manager, in her email, blamed low wages, lack of housing and lack of support for workers for the situation in Fort Yukon.
The Postal Service tries to employ two people at rural post offices: a postmaster and postmaster relief, generally a local who steps in when the postmaster is on leave. The temporary person arrived April 19 and will stay at Fort Yukon about three weeks before the position rotates again, according to Peppinger. USPS is processing an application for a vacant relief postmaster position, she said.
Locals have complained that they want to apply for the postmaster job, but end up spending 60 to 90 minutes filling out an online application, only to have the system reject it because the position isn't officially posted.
Phillips on Thursday said she's glad the post office has reopened but hopes USPS finds someone permanent to run it.
"It's amazing to think something as simple as a post office, what an impact it can have on somebody's life," she said.