When 73-year-old Hempfield resident Debbie Ciak visits the Greensburg Post Office on a typical day, she said, the errand usually takes about 5 minutes.
But the air-conditioning system was broken at the post office during her visit this week, and she said the label machines weren’t working properly in the 80-degree heat.
“The girl that took care of me prefaced the transaction by saying, ‘I just want you to know this is going to take a lot longer today,’” Ciak said.
It took nearly a half-hour, she said.
As the heat gummed up the labels in the machine, Ciak watched the postal clerk painstakingly go through a slew of manual tasks that normally are done with a machine.
Connie Stanley, a 52-year-old Hempfield resident who visited the post office Wednesday to mail a few packages, said that while the temperature inside wasn’t a major issue during her quick stop, she sympathizes with the post office staff.
“The people working in there — it’s not like they can leave,” Stanley said.
“When you get into people having to live and work in that hot environment, it was just very oppressive in there,” Ciak said.
Postal Service spokesman Mark Lawrence said parts needed to repair the air conditioning have been ordered.
“We thank our dedicated employees and customers for their patience during this time as we assure to move as quickly as possible to have our air conditioning restored,” Lawrence said.
With high temperatures in the 80s this week, Connie Stanley worries about how the situation might affect seniors in the community or those with health conditions.
“Everyone from the community uses these resources,” Stanley said. “It’s a public place, so you’d think it would be a priority.”
