A woman puts mail in a mailbox that will soon be removed from the corner of Clark Street and Parkside Avenue in Lancaster.
By Cindy Stauffer
Updated Feb 19, 2007 15:58
The U.S. Postal Service is removing almost half of the boxes in the Lancaster delivery area because they do not generate enough mail.
“We just couldn’t justify keeping them out there,” Lancaster Postmaster Lou DiPerna said today.
The post office did tests of mailboxes in November. Generally, any box that did not get 50 pieces of mail a day did not make the cut, though some exceptions were made.
Overall, 85 out of 205 boxes, or 41 percent, will be removed starting Friday. Notices have been posted on affected boxes.
Not everyone is happy about the decision.
DiPerna estimates the post office has gotten between 50 and 100 complaints from customers for whom a walk to the mailbox is part of their regular routine.
He encourages them to leave their mail at their home mailbox for their carrier to pick up instead.
“Anywhere it’s delivered, mail will be picked up,” he said. “We come to your door every day.”
Carriers also will collect mail from “cluster boxes,” larger boxes that are accessed by a key and have rows of slots for a street or neighborhood.
Some people say they are not comfortable leaving mail outside their home in a mail slot or clipped to their home’s mailbox.
Two residents, senior citizens who asked that their names not be used, live in the 300 block of North Broad Street and are upset about losing the box on their corner of Broad and Madison streets.
One woman said her mail will get wet if she leaves it in her mail slot. The other is afraid that her mail will be lost or stolen.
Once their corner mailbox is removed, they add that it will be difficult for them and other neighbors who are elderly to walk to the next closest box, at Orange and Broad streets, a short and a long block away.
DiPerna says leaving mail for pickup at the home still is their best option.
If it’s raining, he said, “Some people put it in Baggies and hang it in the door that way. Mail does get wet. When it’s raining, we try to protect it as much as we can but the elements do get to us.”
Residents who get their mail stolen should report it to the local police department, the postmaster said.
DiPerna said the boxes that are being removed simply are not being used enough by customers or had other problems.
“A lot lot of them were getting 10, 12 pieces of mail,” DiPerna said.
Or the boxes collected other things.
“We get a lot of trash in them,” the postmaster said. “You name it, it’s been in there — bottles, needles. They collect junk in them.”
A few of the boxes even have had fires set in them.
The affected boxes, he said, “are all over the place. It was widespread. No particular area was affected.”
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