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By Henry J. Cordes – August 24, 2015
Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska recently sent a letter to the U.S. postmaster sharing Nebraskans’ grievances over slow mail delivery, including overdue charges because of late credit card payments and delayed arrival of prescription drugs.

Then, just days later, Fortenberry found himself with a major snail mail gripe of his own.

Because of a yet-unexplained recent foul-up at the Omaha mail processing facility, postcards inviting Fortenberry’s Bellevue constituents to a town hall meeting didn’t arrive until the day of the event.

“Most people were getting home from work and received the invitation to the town hall that was held at noon,” Fortenberry said. “It’s embarrassing.”

Fortenberry was concerned that Bellevue constituents would question the competence of his office. He inquired to Omaha postal officials about the problem.

In the end, he received an apology but no explanation for why the invitations apparently sat in the Omaha post office for days before being sent to Bellevue for delivery.

“This is either a simple mistake, sloppiness or sabotage,” the Republican said, adding it’s unlikely that the postcards were intentionally set aside.

A regional U.S. Postal Service representative did not offer a lot of detail on what happened but said the service was examining procedures to avoid such mistakes again.

“We apologize to Congressman Fortenberry and our customers in Bellevue,” Twana Barber said. “The postcards announcing the town hall meeting earlier this month were not processed correctly. It is the goal of all of us at the Postal Service to provide the most efficient service possible, and we will continue to review our processes to improve on this performance.”

Read more: Fortenberry takes complaints of slow mail delivery to U.S. postmaster; days later, his town hall invites get delayed – Omaha.com: Legislature