The Dillon and Silverthorne post offices are warning customers of limited hours for retail services this week.

Customers continue to have access to their P.O. Boxes at both post offices. But a sign posted to a window at the Dillon Post Office on Wednesday, Oct. 30, stated, “We are closing early today due to staff illness. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.”

The Silverthorne Post Office’s retail services were closed Wednesday morning. A sign posted to the door with the date Tuesday, Oct. 29, stated that the Silverthorne Post Office would be open 2-5 p.m. and the Dillon Post Office would be open 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

U.S. Postal Service spokesperson James Boxrud said Wednesday that the unexpected closures were due to two staff members contracting the flu. Boxrud said he is hopeful that regular service hours will resume by next week. The two Summit County post offices have staffing assistance from post offices in Georgetown and Breckenridge, he said.

“We’re able to kind of keep up with the mail but not able to keep our retail open normal hours,” Boxrud said. “Delivery is not affected, even though there are delivery carriers who contracted this as well.”

While residents can still expect to receive mail to their box daily, Boxrud said there could be minor delays that lead to mail being deposited in boxes later than usual due to the illness impacting staffing levels at the post offices.

Summit County residents, especially those in Silverthorne and Dillon, have complained about a lack of reliable mail service from the U.S. Postal Service for years.

Most recently, customers in Summit County experienced interruptions to mail delivery in late August, after burglaries were reported at the Dillon and Silverthorne post offices. The U.S. Postal Inspection Service postal inspector Melissa Atkin said Wednesday that there is no update on the post office burglaries at this time as the case remains under investigation.

The Dillon and Silverthorne post offices also experienced issues during the 2022-23 winter season. For weeks that winter, the Dillon Post Office restricted P.O. access due to vandalism to the post office building. Meanwhile, Summit County residents also reported delays in receiving mail, including bills and other important documents, that winter.

Late last year, an audit published by the U.S. Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General found that residents of Colorado mountain towns experienced significantly lower on-time performance, especially for package deliveries, than the rest of the state. The audit identified hiring and retention as the biggest challenges for the U.S. Postal Service facilities in Colorado mountain towns.

With the busy holiday season approaching, Boxrud said, “We’re probably, especially in that area, always going to have long lines, especially in the winter months.”

But he added, “We’re sitting a little better than a couple years ago.”

Whereas disruptions to mail delivery during the 2022-23 winter were caused by issues with contractors, Boxrud said those issues have been resolved since the post offices began working with a new contractor.

Moreover, Boxrud noted that while staffing in Summit County has improved only slightly, there is more staffing in the Colorado Rocky Mountain region, including in Evergreen and Golden, to provide backup in a pinch.

“Staffing hasn’t super improved up there,” Boxrud said. “But it has across the area, so now we can borrow these people to bring them up there if we need to.”