BRONX, NY – Teamwork appears to have paid off for the elected officials representing the Northwest Bronx as Congressman Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Council Member Andrew Cohen, and State Senator Alessandra Biaggi have received assurances from the United States Postal Service that help is on the way to the Kingsbridge Post Office. Late Friday night, USPS officials informed the Offices of Assemblyman Dinowitz and Congressman Engel that they are going to make a “big push to clear a lot of the package backlog” stemming from worker shortages at the Kingsbridge Post Office.

The four offices have been working together to secure a plan from USPS to protect the health and safety of postal workers and ensure reliable mail delivery in the Northwest Bronx during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The four elected officials sent a letter to the United States Postmaster General on March 30. As the problem grew worse over the week, Congressman Engel’s office continued contacting the USPS and sharing concerns raised by angry residents, as did the offices of Council Member Cohen and State Senator Biaggi. Assemblyman Dinowitz’s office also contacted the White House Department of Intergovernmental Affairs representative for their regularly occurring “COVID-19 Briefing Call with State-Local-Tribal Leaders” and White House staff passed along Dinowitz’s concern to leadership at USPS. Congressman Engel also directly contacted the United States Postmaster General to press for answers.

All four offices have been inundated with hundreds of calls and emails about important mail and packages people were not receiving, which often included checks, medications, debit cards used for unemployment insurance income, and other essential items.

USPS indicated that the big push this weekend would include additional City Carrier Assistants to cover routes in Kingsbridge, with a focus on small parcels.

The Northwest Bronx Elected Team of Congressman Eliot Engel, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz, Council Member Andrew Cohen, and State Senator Alessandra Biaggi jointly said: “We are very grateful to the incredible postal workers who are coming this weekend to help ensure that our community can receive their important packages. People rely on mail for things like checks, medications, unemployment debit cards, and more and it is so important that our community receives transparent information about what to expect from USPS so they can plan accordingly. This is an unprecedented crisis, and it will take an unprecedented response from the hard-working people of the United States Postal Service to protect workers’ health and safety while continuing to reliably deliver the mail that people need. Thank you to everyone who has been so patient as they waited for their needed packages, and we look forward to a master plan to protect worker health and safety while maintaining reliable mail service for the Northwest Bronx and everywhere during the novel coronavirus pandemic.”