SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. (DC News Now) — With a new administration in Washington, many federal programs are being targeted for elimination.
Mail carriers in rural communities fear they fall into that category. They met in Shepherdstown as the week closed out in hopes that it would not be the case.
Letter carriers have been an institution in every rural community in America for 250 years. They want Congress, just an hour away from here, to know how integral mail delivery is too small towns.
“Rural carriers are lifelines, the very fabric that knits rural communities together,” said Don Maston, president of the National Rural Letter Carriers Association.
Kirby Ricketts serves on the association executive committee, has spent his entire career delivering mail on the backroads of the U.S., and said that “rural carriers are the lifelines, the fabric that knits these little rural communities together.”