McKenzie County Farmer - Latest News

Ann Estvold,
NDNA Legislative Intern

Postal delays affect everyone, but they are especially harmful for rural North Dakotans.
House Concurrent Resolution 3006 urges the U.S. Postmaster General to improve mail processing across the state to address delivery problems. A House committee has unanimously recommended approval, following testimony from people and industries impacted by poor postal delivery.
Dist. 2 Rep. Donald Longmuir, R-Stanley, is the primary sponsor of the resolution, which he said was inspired by problems he had with his personal mail. He received a notice he was late paying a utility bill he never received. About two weeks later, he got a post office notice that he needed to pick up a bundle of mail from the window. He found the utility bill in that bundle.
“It made me wonder what about the number of people waiting for medications, legal documents or other important papers,” said Longmuir. “HCR 3006 is addressing an issue which is affecting many citizens of North Dakota, and that issue is the failure of the United States Postal Service to provide dependable mail delivery.”
Travis Bruner, who operates Bruner Angus Ranch in Drake with his family, submitted online testimony. Bruner ships frozen beef using two-day shipping, but when packages were not delivered for over a week, there was no refund and it was a loss for the ranch.
Jade Koski, a spokesperson for the North Dakota Stockman’s Association, said one rancher mailed out 800 sale catalogs in early November. More than 200 had not been delivered by the time the sale took place, and as of Jan. 28, 2025, 189 catalogs were still unaccounted for, 84 days after they were mailed. This put a huge financial strain on the ranch operation, said Koski, since the sale impacts their income for the whole year.
Marnie Walth from North Dakota Health Policy Consortium said sometimes they have challenges with medication delivery which can be a big problem.
“Mail in rural America and rural North Dakota is more than just mail,” said Cally Peterson, it’s a lifeline. The editor of ND Living said the magazine is typically mailed the first part of the month. In past years all magazines were delivered around the fifth of the month, now magazines are being delivered as late as the 20th.
Impacts on the newspaper industry have a snowballing effect – hurting local advertisers and impacting local governments and elections, along with subscribers.
GS Publishing, which includes seven newspapers in southwestern North Dakota, has had 16 weeks in the past year where newspapers haven’t shown up on time, according to written testimony submitted by the North Dakota Newspaper Association (NDNA).
“We are weekly newspapers, and we pride ourselves on providing the local news to all our readers. However, when the newspaper is two-five days late, it is difficult to share the latest news in a timely manner,” wrote GS Publishing owner Jill Friesz. “At one point, one of the editions of the paper was over 20 days late getting delivered. When it is late and the events advertised have already passed, we can’t charge the business, so we are losing revenue on a regular basis.”
Last November, Friesz had newspaper editions containing sample ballots and poll locations delayed. Similarly, the postal service has caused issues with mailed in ballots.
Donnell Preskey, North Dakota Association of Counties, said some absentee ballots for the June primary election were not postmarked, so auditors couldn’t tell when they were mailed. While the situation was remedied before the General Election, Preskey said the situation was still concerning.
NDNA Director Cecile Wehrman said newspapers have “long fought with the U.S. Postal Service to improve newspaper delivery and hold the line on costs. The past three years have seen the worst service ever, and a 53 percent increase in postal rates for periodicals.”
This puts financial strain on publishers, leading to raises in subscription prices. When subscribers don’t receive their paper in the mail, they don’t understand why the newspaper can’t send another one.
“We’ve already paid the post office to deliver their paper,” Wehrman said. “We’d go broke doing that.”
The resolution received near-unanimous approval, with one committee member absent. Longmuir said he would ask for the resolution to be put on the consent agenda for a future floor session.
If both the Senate and House pass the resolution, the bill calls for the Secretary of State to forward a copy of this resolution to the Postmaster General of the United States Postal Service and each member of the North Dakota Congressional Delegation.
If successful, Wehrman said, it could be a model for other states to pass similar resolutions.

  Visit www.watfordcitynd.com and subscribe to the McKenzie County Farmer today!