A Princeton, Texas public school administrator told me something the other evening that I didn’t appreciate fully … until this morning when I ventured to our local Post Office to take care of some routine business.
Princeton School Superintendent Don McIntyre mentioned how “out of control growth” in a community can be troublesome for educators who need to plan for how best to educate the children pouring into a school system.
This morning, I walked into our Post Office at the moment it opened and found that I was one of about 30 people already waiting for the doors to open.
You want growth? We have it in this Collin County community.
I mention my experience this morning because of what I am certain was the norm, say, about a decade ago when Princeton’s population stood at just a shade less than 7,000 residents. Today, that number appears to be well past 20,000, maybe nearer to 30,000.
This place is booming, man!
I know this is a little thing but going to the Post Office when the place opens shouldn’t require one to spend nearly an hour waiting to conduct a routine matter that should have been resolved in less than a minute.
I happened to encounter my mail carrier later in the day and told her what happened to me this morning. “They only have one person waiting on customers,” she told me. I know that, I said. She said something about having a new postmaster on duty in Princeton, to which I said we need to find a new postmaster general to run the operation from the top.
In actuality, what I learned today is that our new hometown is underserved by the U.S. Postal Service. Its distribution center here is nowhere near large enough to accommodate the volume of human traffic that uses it.
Hey, I am all for growth. I am pleased to be part of the inbound migration that found a forever home in this bustling city. My wife and I could not be any happier with the decision we made.
I just wish at this moment that the higher-ups could do a better job of anticipating the chaos that develops occasionally at places like the Post Office. That part is no fun at all.