Now that the story on the scaffolding on the Post Office annex has been published, I thought some of you might be amused by what it can take to get a quote out of a federal official.
I started that day by leaving messages for both our local postmaster and a Portland, Maine-based Postal Service spokesman I'd dealt with before.
The Rutland postmaster got back to me first, and referred my call to a facilities manager in Troy, N.Y. The facilities manager picked up the phone, which gave me hope, and then told me he wasn't allowed to talk to the media, which dashed that hope.
He referred me to the Postal Service's head of communcations for the Northeast, a woman in Windsor, Conn. She took my information and said she'd get back to me.
She didn't. Instead, the Maine spokesman I left the initial message with, who said he was already swamped with calls about the list of proposed office closings that came out that day, called back later that afternoon and provided the information in the story.
Alas, this sort of thing is much more typical of my work than meeting with trenchcoat-wearing informants in darkened parking garages.
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