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Postal Service Workers Take Rare Snow Day After Colorado Blizzard

DENVER (CBS4) - For a long known symbol of reliability, Monday was a "snow day" for the United State Postal Service. Delivery to mail boxes was sparse if at all in most areas. Longtime postal workers say this is the first time in recent memory it has happened.

Just about all Post Offices were closed. In Lakewood, the office on Alameda Avenue near Kipling Street was open for a while. There CBS4 found people in search of a badly-needed postmark.

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CBS4'S Rick Sallinger asked Richard Fleenor, "Why did you come here today?"

"To file my taxes with the Department of Revenue. They are due today."

The postal service cited closed roads and unsafe delivery conditions as the reason for mail delivery stoppage. Jim Boxrud, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Denver was asked by Sallinger, "What about that saying, 'through rain, snow, sleet or hail the mail must go through?'"

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Boxrud responded, "Yeah we do have some amazing employees who made it in today and hitting the main roads wherever the roads are open and are making those deliveries, but that's not going to happen everywhere."

He says people could help by clearing out a space around their mailboxes and shovel the  Walkways to them. If your mail doesn't arrive, it will be held at your local post office.

To be fair, the postal service is far from alone. Amazon trucks were spotted from the air stranded in the snow. Of course school buses sidelined, providing snow days for
some. People seem understanding.

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Thomas Douglas was trying to get into the post office to mail some important equipment for his fish tank.

"I think it's important to be able to post it on time but sometimes there are extenuating circumstances and I think this might have been a time."

Some postal employees gave it their best, but on this day the mail did not get through.

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