Saturday Mail Delivery to End, Postal Service Announces

The U.S. Postal Service announced it will end Saturday mail delivery by Aug. 1. Speak out: How will this affect you?

Calling the six-days-per-week mail delivery business model “no longer sustainable,” the U.S. Postal Service Wednesday morning announced it will eliminate Saturday delivery of mail by Aug. 1. The plan to change delivery from six days a week to five would only affect first-class mail. Packages, mail-order medicines, priority and express mail would still be delivered on Saturdays, and local post offices will remain open for business Saturdays. This includes the Plainfield post office at 14855 S. Van Dyke Rd.  According to the U.S. Postal Service, the reasons for nixing Saturday delivery have to do with continued economic struggles and the increasing use of the Internet for communications and bill paying by consumers. The U.S. Postal Service …

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Police: Plainfield Woman Drives into Post Office

The 81-year-old told police she was swerving to avoid a pedestrian when her car crashed into the Romeoville post office.

No one was hurt early Monday when an elderly woman accidentally drove her car into the Romeoville post office, 315 W. Romeo Rd. The crash happened shortly before 9 a.m. Romeoville Assistant Police Chief Steven Lucchesi said  the woman, an 81-year-old from Plainfield, told police the accident happened after a teenage boy walked out in front of her Buick LaCrosse from in between two parked cars. “[She] said she swerved left to avoid hitting the pedestrian and drove through the front of the building,” Lucchesi said. “It appears she may have pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.” The driver was uninjured, and no one inside the post office was hurt, police said. The woman was issued a citation for failure to reduce speed to avoid an …

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Downtown Businesses Petition to Get Mail Carrier Returned to Route

Mailman Randy Kinley said he was given no reason why assignment was changed; he now delivers to all of downtown -- except Lockport Street.

For five years, Randy Kinley was the mail carrier for the businesses along Lockport Street. Rain, shine, snow or sleet, as the old postal carrier motto goes, Kinley was the guy who trooped door to door dropping off bills, delivering packages and picking up outgoing mail. You get to know people pretty well, he said, when you cross their threshold some 250 times in a calendar year. But change is an inevitable part of all jobs, as Kinley knows. After all, he's been a mail carrier for 26 years and his route change last week was not his first. Typically, though, there’s a reason behind it: someone’s retired, the town’s grown and more routes are needed, a new boss wants to try something new. Not this time. His new assignment has him delivering …

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We Asked

Should Major League Baseball Ban Chewing Tobacco?

We ask these Average Joes and Janes what they think about the long-standing practice of players chewing tobacco during games.

Some traditions in baseball never change. The stretch is still sung during the middle of the seventh, hot dogs are a main food group at the ballpark, and fans never speak about a perfect game till it’s completed. But former New York Mets manager Bobby Valentine is suggesting one change to the game - take out the chewing tobacco. Before the start of the season, Valentine wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times. He talked about former player Tony Gwynn’s struggle with cancer, smokeless tobacco's allure and how organizations like the National Hockey League have banned the substance. Ron Johnson, 58, of Plainfield, believes baseball shouldn’t mess with tradition. “Let chewing tobacco stay,” Johnson said. “It seems to me that it’s part of…

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Karen Sorensen

4:16 pm on Thursday, April 7, 2011

Yes, my mistake. My apologies; it's been corrected. Thanks for pointing it out!   more ›

We Asked

Are You Giving Up Anything for Lent?

We ask these Average Joes and Janes if they are making any sacrifices over the next 40 days to prepare for Easter.

Wednesday began the 40-day period of Lent. Many forms of Christianity observe this period, which leads up to Easter, by giving up something that tempts them. From signing off of Facebook to tuning out the "Jersey Shore," the range of what people give up varies. Linda Junes, 53, of Plainfield, was out-and-about on Fat Tuesday, the day prior to Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent, but still didn’t know what she was going to do as her penance. “Oh man,” Junes said. “I haven’t thought much about it yet.” We hit the streets near the Plainfield post office to see if people in town were participating in Lent. Click on each photo to read what people had to say.

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We Asked

Should Mail Service be Reduced to Five Days a Week?

We ask these Average Joes and Janes if they can live with a reduction in postal delivery days if it meant saving tax money.

Businesses are supposed to make money, not lose it. That's UPS and FedEx do, making a profit for its shareholders, but the U.S. Postal Service projects it will lose more than $238 billion over the next decade. NPR reported the post office plans to shutter or consolidate as many as 2,000 branches to help close the gap. Another solution being offered is to reduce the number of days of service from six to five, eliminating Saturday delivery. The suggestion was made last year, but Ruth Goldway, chairman of the Postal Regulatory Commission, and Congress has yet to take action. Rose Parks, of Plainfield, doesn’t like the idea of less mail days, but believes it will happen. “When it comes to reducing anything, you don’t like it,” Parks said. “If …

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We Asked

Should Quinn Sign Bill Abolishing Death Penalty?

As we wait to learn if the governor will sign legislation to end the capital punishment, we ask these Average Joes and Janes what they thought...

It’s a debate the starts in high school ethics classes and never ends: Should there be a death penalty? A Cook County sheriff's deputy, who lives in Plainfield but asked to remain anonymous, believes capital punishment should be outlawed in the state. "There's a lot of evidence that comes out later showing that people were falsely imprisoned," the 36-year-old said. "And you never know if the police falsify evidence; and I'm a sheriff." The Illinois Senate and House approved the abolishment of the death penalty almost a month ago. But Gov. Pat Quinn has yet to act on Illinois Senate Bill 3539. If he doesn't act by mid-March, the bill will automatically become law. Since Gov. Quinn seems unable to make up his mind, we hit the streets outside…

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About Town

Residents Stocking Up, Making Plans for Wintry Blast

Food and hardware stores seeing a higher-than-normal number of customers as everyone gears up for what could be a record snowstorm.

Business was as brisk as the gusting breeze Tuesday morning as shoppers stocked up for the impending blizzard.  The Kin-Ko Ace Hardware on Lockport Street has had about three times its normal number of sales, store manager Dave Flentge said. It sold all five of its snow blowers, and most of the shovels and salt it had in stock. Customers also were buying kerosene heaters to brace for worst-case scenarios.  All across Plainfield, people morning were laying in supplies and waiting for the snow to start. With a record-setting snowstorm predicted to blast the Chicago area with perhaps as much as a foot and a half of snow and wind gusts as high at 50 mph, residents and government agencies are on high alert.  Emergency management officials are …

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What's Open/Closed on Martin Luther King Day Holiday

Schools, governments, courts affected by the holiday; Pace/Metra running on normal schedule.

Monday is Martin Luther King Day, a federal holiday that will affect these services: U.S. Postal Service -- no mail delivery (express mail delivered) Plainfield School District 202/Troy School District 30C -- no school Joliet Junior College -- no school Area banks -- most are closed Plainfield Village Hall -- closed Plainfield trash collection -- normal schedule Plainfield Public Library -- closed Will County Courthouse/government -- closed Federal/state government -- closed Pace/Metra -- regular weekday hours

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