A letter detailing coming changes to home delivery has many St. John postal customers concerned about their mail service.
A recent series of letters from St. John postmaster Lisa Wagner asked customers on hand-carried routes in the city to start relocating their mailboxes for curbside service.
“The post office lost $3.8 billion in 2009 and is projected to lose $238 billion by the year 2020,” Wagner said.
Several cost saving measures have been taken by the postal service, but they are still looking for more ways to save money including a hiring freeze and closing post offices according to Wagner.
“I’m just trying to keep St. John off the closed post office list,” she said.
The post office is currently requiring all new residences and businesses to install curbside mail boxes and are considering requiring all residences and businesses to go to curbside or cluster boxes – a bank of mail boxes in one central location that would serve several customers in that area.
“We are just asking customers to consider moving their mailboxes curbside now to try and cut expense at the St. John office, and keep us off the closed list,” Wagner said. “If we can run the routes from the postal vehicle it will help us get the mail delivered sooner saving man-hours and expenses.
“Lucille (Richardson) will be retiring soon, and we are on a hiring freeze so once she’s gone Deana (Williamson) will have to carry the whole town. Sometimes if someone is on vacation or sick, I’ve put on a mailbag during my lunch hour and helped with deliveries.”
Some parts of St. John are already served by a rural route carrier, and have the boxes at the street. Specifications for the mailbox is 42” high, and 6” back from the roadway, but Wagner said the biggest requirement was setting the boxes so they can be accessed from a car window, and it a place where there is not normally a vehicle parked during delivery times.
“I set the Aug. 31 deadline just so we could have a target date to plan for making route changes,” she said. “It won’t do us much good if one or two people on the block do it, but we still have to get out to deliver the rest of the houses on the block.”
Wagner said there are hardship exemptions for people that cannot, or should not be walking to the curb to get their mail. The boxes also don’t have to be located at the curb in front of the house. They can be in a driveway, or a side street for people living on a corner.
“It just has to be where we can get to it from the postal vehicle,” Wagner said. “This isn’t a requirement yet, but it’s coming. We are just trying to get ahead of it, and make sure we keep our office open.”
For more information or to request assistance or a waiver contact St. John postmaster Lisa Wagner at 620-549-3856.
