By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
Congressman Rush Holt may be retiring at the end of the year, but he still is bringing home the mail to his constituents.
Literally.
The six-term congressman spent a couple of hours Thursday morning going door to door with postal carrier Robert Ahr on North 5th Avenue in Manville to emphasize the congressman’s belief the Postal Service is an essential agency that must be strengthened and preserved and not cut back.
"People really depend on the mail and not just for their business," he said while carrying a bag filled with circulars, magazines and letters. "It’s fundamentally American."
The postal service has come under criticism for losing money — to the point where some people have suggested cutting facilities, laying off workers or ending Saturday deliveries at the least — as it seeks to adjust to a world in which people pay bills and send mail over the Internet and use private package delivery services.
The postal service is not just another delivery service, and the professed need to cut back is not true, Congressman Holt said.
One of the fiscal anomalies that paints the agency’s finances in bad light is the legislated mandate to pre-fund retiree health benefits — something no other government agency is forced to do, he said.
"I’m not one generally for reducing pension contributions, but they are required to put more into pension that any other agency," he said.
Saving some of that money "would be enough to forestall any crisis," he said.
Mr. Holt, talking in bites as he walked up sidewalks to mailboxes, said he scheduled the publicity opportunity to show "the post office needs some positive attention," he said.
"They are working hard to do good things," he said. "People are very happy to see their letter carrier coming and appreciative of how well they do their job."
Postal customers depend on the service, he said. It’s wrong to treat the post office "just like another delivery service . . . We need to maintain the special service of the postal service."
There are other alternatives that should be explored, he said. One answer might be to make the post office the center for more government services "to give people another reason to go to the post office," he said.
The postal system can’t be compared to private companies because it serves everyone, in all areas, with all kinds of deliveries, he pointed out.
"Privatization is greatly oversold," said the Democrat who isn’t seeking re-election. "A number of functions are done well by government employees and should be . . . It’s easier to make a profit delivering the easy things, but who would deliver to the elderly person those couple of letters a week they really depend on?"
He said, "We need the service as a nation, whatever the cost. I don’t think it has to be a net cost to the country. Postal service can be self-supporting, but that’s not the whole issue. The question is do we really need this socially? We can run it in a way so that the net cost is zero, but, like so much today, people focus more on the cost than the value. What do we get for it? It’s a service people need and a service that ties communities together."
Often overlooked are social aspects of everyday delivery, he said.
Carriers "keep in touch with daily lives" and are the "eyes and ears of a town’s neighborhood," he said.
They recognize trouble at homes and are "community builders," he said.
Mr. Ahr operates out of the Hillsborough post office. He lives in North Brunswick and has worked with the USPS since 1993. At age 52, he could retire in three years, he said, but he plans to keep on going, in part to pay college bills for his son.
Mr. Ahr said his route is about 425 attempted deliveries, about 4 miles per day. One woman who greeted him at the door called him "our best mailman."
Mr. Holt was outfitted with a postal service cap and a bag equipped with K-9 spray. At a mid-route stop to pick up more mail, he told Mr. Ahr to "give me the heavy stuff."
Mr. Ahr said the mail used to be a lot heavier with a lot more circulars.
They made a stop to drop off mail at the Board of Education offices and met a veteran, Robert Porchik, who said he had met the congressman at a Marine Corps veterans food drive. (Another one is coming up in October, he said.)
At one house, a dog inside the house barked as Mr. Ahr shoved mail through a chest-high mail slot.
"The dog is chewing that up right now," Mr. Holt said. "He’s on it quick."
"It’s good that there is a door between us," said Mr. Ahr, segueing to his history of encounters with dogs.

