YPSILANTI, MI - A year after losing her husband, Ypsilanti-area resident Kiersten Gawrowski said she also lost the opportunity to invest $20,000 in funds from his Chrysler pension plan.

Turns out, the documents were lost in the Ypsilanti mail system, Gawrowski said.

Ongoing mail delivery issues prompted U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell to organize a town hall Thursday, Feb. 22 and Gawrowski to stand in front of a crowd of more than 300 people to recount her experience.

A teacher with Saline Area Schools, Gawrowski said she mailed the documents about eight weeks ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline in order to qualify for a program that would invest the pension so she could use it to retire one day.

"When I didn't hear back, I would call but I didn't think much of it," Gawrowski said. "When it rolled around to December, I got concerned."

A phone call left her with more questions than answers: Gawrowski was unable to prove she had sent the documents ahead of the deadline to ensure the pension would be invested and instead will now receive a monthly lump sum once she turns 62.

"I didn't lose it but I lost out on the investment," Gawrowski said.

She says she continues to have mail delivered to the wrong address, delayed mail and packages left out in the rain or snow, and the culmination of these issues has resulted in a loss of trust in the local post office system.

"I just don't call anymore," Gawrowski said after speaking at the town hall meeting, adding she takes her mail to the UPS location in Saline to be delivered. "Since the incident with the pension, I don't even bother."

Over the course of more than two hours, residents shared their own experiences with the Ypsilanti post office and heard from U.S. Post Office representatives about possible solutions to the ongoing issues.

One solution is route adjustments for the Ypsilanti post office, a process that could start as early as Saturday and involve both city and rural routes but not be implemented until April or May, post office representatives said.

Many residents voiced their concerns about issues not easily addressed by a route change, like mail or parcel theft and customer service at the Ypsilanti post office locations.

One resident said managers refused to take her complaint and the Ypsilanti post office was the worst she had encountered in the United States, while another said a post office employee laughed at her over the phone when she told him of her plans to make a formal complaint.

The issues have meant late fees for utility bills, impacted temperature-sensitive medication, damaged engagement rings and affected high school and college students to retirees waiting for disability checks that sometimes don't appear in the mailbox until after 9 p.m., citizens said.

While at the microphone, Gawrowski asked those in attendance to raise their hands if they had mail delivered to the wrong address or delayed delivery.

"I wanted them to have the visuals," she said, as a majority of the hands were raised into the air and remained through numerous issues they had encountered. "There's not an easy solution but something has to change."

At least one resident addressed an announcement made earlier Thursday that post office representatives would not be attending the meeting and called it "terrible public service."

Postal Service representatives were at the meeting.

Another brought a thumb-drive with a video showing a mail carrier hitting her mailbox with the delivery vehicle and leaving it in the middle of the road, filmed by her neighbor, before handing it to the post office officials at the front of the room.

Mitty McMaster has lived in Ypsilanti Township for 69 years and said she has never experienced problems with the mail service like she has seen in the past two years. She asked officials where her mail carrier has been; McMaster hasn't seen her since November.

"I want to give her her Christmas gift," McMaster said, after telling officials they should be ashamed by the amount of people in attendance at the town hall with complaints. "I'm very embarrassed and you should be embarrassed."

Some residents brought a bit of humor to their complaints; one pointed out she didn't know which January post office employees were talking about when it came to delivery.

There are plans to hold monthly community meetings at the post office location on Adams Street "so it won't get to this level," said Ypsilanti Postmaster Alicia Brown, Ypsilanti postmaster.

"I am committed to making the changes in Ypsilanti," Brown said, prompting some laughs from residents in the crowd around 8:40 p.m., after the town hall was scheduled to end.

Lee A. Thompson, district manager of USPS Detroit, encouraged residents to continue communicating issues with mail delivery and to contact her at 313-226-8607, and to also contact the Ypsilanti postmaster with complaints.

"You have my commitment, your mail will be delivered each and every day," Thompson said.