Bypass Mail System under fire: From Washington to Wainwright - system disputed and defended

December 16th 1:27 pm | Hannah Heimbuch    

When the U.S. Postal Service loses $10 billion in one fiscal year, it's no surprise they're looking for ways to cut costs. And Alaska happens to be a big one.

Ringing up an estimated $73 million, Alaska's Bypass Mail System is one of the programs USPS is considering letting go in order to make ends meet. Established in the '70s to help move goods to the Bush affordably, the bypass system subsidizes mail delivery to communities not accessible by road. It allows rural Alaskans to pay universal postal prices for freight mail sent by rural air carrier.

A recent report by the USPS Office of the Inspector General laid out a long list of reasons the bypass system has outgrown its original purpose and is an unfair drain on the postal service. The report suggests that Alaska shoulder the cost burden of shipping to communities without roads.

Business-owners in rural Alaska, say, however, that doing away with the system would make many items cost-prohibitive for residents.

Alaska's congressional delegation spoke out in early December in defense of bypass mail. Delegates Don Young, Mark Begich and Lisa Murkowski issued a formal letter to the USPS Inspector General's office refuting claims that the Bypass Mail system is either unnecessary or inequitable. They argue that the service is essential to Alaska and deserved under the USPS mandate to provide like service to all U.S. communities.

They also dissected some of the supporting research outlined in the report, and pointed out errors in its depiction of Alaska transportation, food prices, community needs and the amount Alaska invests every year in its rural air systems.

While the future management of this program stands on shaky ground at this point, one thing is certain - it provides a service few rural communities could do without.

Joseph Ahmaogak is the manager of the Olgoonik Corporation Store in Wainwright.

The store receives freight shipments of con- sumer goods via the bypass system on a regular basis, and relies on that cost subsidy to keep prices affordable.

"Wainwright is one of hundreds of communities in Alaska not accessible by roads. There's no other way," Ahmaogak said. "I know how important bypass is to the community. Without it a lot of goods and services will need to be priced outrageously."

One of the arguments in the USPS report was that commercial interests were the ones seeing the savings, not individual residents of rural communities. Ahmaogak disagrees.

"The local economy and jobs are limited," he said. "(Without bypass) low-income families would not be able to purchase basic goods," Ahmaogak said.

This means things like milk, eggs and bread, essentials which, despite bypass benefits, are already priced higher than in urban locales due to the sheer distance the goods have to travel to get on the shelves.

Joe Kim, owner of the Point Hope Whaler Inn Restaurant, can empathize with that reality. Every couple of weeks, he places freight orders from Anchorage or Fairbanks to supply his small restaurant. Now costing him more than $4,000 apiece, that price would double without bypass mail.

"That would mean I'd have to cut back everything," Kim said. "I'd have to raise prices. That's the only way I'm going to match it."

Ahmaogak said he understands the need for adjustment when times change and cost becomes unmanageable.

"I know it's been a long time since Senator Stevens brought (bypass mail) into place and I'm sure there's some stuff that needs to be fixed," said Ahmaogak. "But I'm sure working together we can find a way to have those services available and keep the prices

low without having the post service be stuck with the large remainder of what it really costs. We're a state; we should be looking out for own people. We have the resources, we'll find a way to help put in some of that cost."

 

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