U.S. Rep. Dale Strong (R-Monrovia) is fed up with mail not being delivered on time across north Alabama and he's working to fix the problem.

The congressman formally called on the United States Postal Service (USPS) to invest in a new Processing and Distribution Facility (PD&F) in Huntsville.

In a letter to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy this week, Strong said the agency has received a flood of complaints from constituents “describing their experiences with deficiencies in a once-reliable USPS system.”

Huntsville once had its own distribution facility, but in 2011, that operation was consolidated in Birmingham, something Strong noted in his letter to the USPS commissioner.

Strong said the root cause of the mail delivery issues stems from the Birmingham distribution facility's inability to efficiently serve North Alabama residents.

“Most of the postal service issues reported to my office concern the timeliness of processing priority mail and packages at the Birmingham P&DF,” Strong wrote. “Postal workers in various locations throughout my district have told constituents that these delays are solely due to mail being lost or backed up in Birmingham because the facility lacks the operational capacity to handle the current mail volume.”

In defending North Alabama against the USPS, Strong noted that since the 2010 census, the populations of Huntsville and Madison counties have grown by 36 percent and 23 percent, respectively.

Strong's letter concluded, “The number of lawsuits filed through my office alone demonstrates that the Birmingham Post Office's serious deficiencies are not an isolated incident, but the result of an overburdened postal system. It is alleged that investments from the Alabama Post Office have not translated into improved operations. Accordingly, I call for a change of course and for the establishment of a new post office in Huntsville.”

Strong asked the Postmaster General to provide a written response to his office so that members of Congress can convey it to their constituents.

Yaffe is a contributing writer for Yellow Hammer News and hosts “The Yaffe Program” weekdays from 9-11 a.m. WhistlerYou can follow him on X @Yaffe