On Thursday, Sen. Max Baucus is taking Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe to the tiny eastern Montana town of Ingomar to hold a community discussion about the importance of rural post offices. Having been to Ingomar on several occasions on antelope hunting trips, I must recommend that they stop by the Jersey Lilly for a bite to eat and, if the moment calls for it, a cold beer or two. If you really want to get an idea of what’s going on in Ingomar, you head down to the Lilly.
Baucus has been asking Donahoe to come to Montana for awhile as the U.S. Postal Service considers closing rural post offices and mail processing facilities across the country, including a number in Montana. Baucus and Donahoe decided on holding the gathering in Ingomar, as well as a community listening session in Helena, also on Thursday.
In a press release last week, Baucus said that while eating lunch in Ingomar – at the Jersey Lilly, of course – during a visit last August, community members joined him for an “impromptu townhall discussion” to share their concerns over the Postal Service’s plans to shut down the post office there.
“I’ll never forget the passion and the urgency I heard from folks in Ingomar,” Baucus said. “It stuck with me and I believe that it will leave an impression on the Postmaster General. To a number cruncher in DC, Ingomar might be just another line on a spreadsheet, but my hope is that folks in Montana have a fair shot at being heard and taken into account.”
Given that this whole unusual trip from Washington DC to a small prairie town in eastern Montana began with a discussion at the Jersey Lilly, I believe, no matter what Donahoe ultimately decides, it should end at the Jersey Lilly too. At least for just one beer.