October 16 , 2025
USPS delivery issues frustrate local residents
In October, rural mail delivery residents in Waitsfield and Fayston voiced their frustration with chronic USPS mail delivery delays, citing missed bills, important letters, and inconsistent package delivery. Many said they’ve gone days – some even weeks – without regular service, and confusion plus lack of communication from the U.S. Postal Service fueled that frustration.
Local folks said the issue has been ongoing since earlier this summer. The Valley Reporter reached out to USPS designated spokesperson Steve Doherty on several occasions, seeking answers to why mail delivery is sporadic. The Valley Reporter shared a letter from a local man, a former postmaster, expressing his concerns about the Waitsfield Post Office with Doherty on October 6.
“Aside from the angry former employee below, I’m not sure why customers would be reaching out to you for postal-related issues? Any customer with mail concerns can contact our Customer Service Center to be connected with a local operations manager who can address their concerns. They are currently experiencing an issue with employee availability in Waitsfield and are hiring to fill that need. In the interim, in addition to personnel from neighboring offices being deployed to assist, management personnel, including the current postmaster, are out delivering mail to ensure that customer’s needs are met. This person’s assessment that “no one has had mail delivery for about two months” is ridiculous and untrue,” Doherty wrote in an October 6 email.
Via Facebook, The Valley Reporter asked local folks this: “Anyone having issues with USPS mail delivery? We’ve heard there have been issues with carrier delivery in Waitsfield and Fayston due to staff shortages. Let us know in the comments or by email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.”
The post was viewed 11,191 times and garnered 51 comments about delayed, sporadic and non-existent mail delivery. People also pointed to the fact that good communication about the issue was critical and that the phone number for the customer service center went unanswered and that the local phone number for the post office is no longer answered. Importantly, many people pointed out that the issue is not with the office staff and that there was no need to be rude to them.
October 16 , 2025
The Big Picture Café to reopen November 1
After a long pause and a transition of Waitsfield's Big Picture Theater into a nonprofit organization featuring cultural and family programming, the Cafe side of the Big Picture is ready to reopen. That announcement came in October, setting the stage for a November 1 reopening.
Manager Kevin McMillion and owner Claudia Becker were able to find a strong kitchen team. Colby Miller – a known chef in the Mad River Valley and Alexander Brink, Texas, who moved to the area last year, are presenting a new menu starting November 1. The menu will feature a variety of new dishes with a focus on locally-sourced ingredients, and eventually bring back some old favorites, Becker said.
October 23, and 30 2025
Warren installs and then removes speed bumps
Three incorrectly-sized speed bumps were removed from Brook Road (two) and Main Street (one) in Warren in October, a week after they were installed. The bumps were installed by Pike Industries. The hue and cry from local drivers was immediate, intense, and culminated in a full house at the Warren Select Board meeting where board chair Devin Klein Corrigan said the offending bumps were being removed.
Klein Corrigan said that theoffending bumps, which were the wrong size, were being removed and because temperatures no longer work for asphalt, would be reinstalled in the spring.
The speed bumps/humps and tables that the town wanted were to be 12 feet wide and 3 inches high and designed to be driven at 15-25 mph. What Pike Industries built were structures that were 6 feet wide and 5 inches high that cannot be safely driven over at the speed limit.
“On the day of the install, we received word from our road foreman that what was being installed didn't seem like what we wanted. I responded almost immediately, and was told by the contractor that what we ordered was not allowed on public roads, and that humps could only be up to 7-feet-wide, instead of the 12 that we had marked out and asked for. In light of this, I asked the contractor to shave down the already built portions of the bumps as much as possible, hoping to improve the situation until we could get to the bottom of the issue. Following the completion of the installation, it became pretty clear that what was installed was not what we ordered,” Klein Corrigan said.
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