It was about 3:15 Monday afternoon, dismissal time for Great Bend Middle School. Harrison Street in front of Becky Dudrey’s house was choked with students and their parents.
Dudrey looked at an oversized post card she received from the United States Postal Service requesting she install a new curb-side mailbox. “This is ridiculous.”
The card she referred to came from the USPS and the Great Bend postmaster. It reads “The US Postal Service is motorizing delivery service in your area. We are requesting that you place a mail receptacle at the curb.”
By delivering via a vehicle, the card notes, service will be faster, more efficient and safer.
“We will be requesting customers move their mail boxes to the curb in areas where there are long distances between boxes, delivery on one side of the street, or where there are already some boxes located on the curb.” The mailing goes on to explain the measurements and requirements for a new mailbox.
The cost of the new box would be the responsibility of the resident. But the USPS suggests placing a box with a neighbor’s on one post at the property line and sharing the installation expense.
“This is a reminder that the Postal Service depends on you to meet postal requirements regarding delivery of mail to your mail receptacles,” it continues. “Keeping the approach to your mailbox at the required specifications and cleared of snow, vehicles, and any other obstacles, permit the carrier to access your mailbox to deposit and collect mail.”
But, the operative word is “request,” said Mark Kerschen, Hutchinson-based manager of postal operations whose territory covers Great Bend and the surrounding area.
“We are asking customers if they will do this,” Kerschen said. “But, it is not mandatory.”
As for packages, little would change. If it fits in the box, it will be left there, otherwise it will be taken to the front door and left on the porch.
According to said Great Bend Postmaster Mike Bell, the card came out of the head office of the Central Plains Region (which covers all of Nebraska and parts of Kansas and Iowa) in Omaha, Neb., and it didn’t take into consideration sidewalks by the curb. “That’s the biggest concern people have,” he said. “We get calls every five minutes.”
Customers are worried that they have to dig up the sidewalk. Instead, Bell said, if they want to install a new box, it can go in the yard.
Not all customers in Great Bend have received the cards yet and they are going out one route at a time. Bell plans on sending out a follow-up letter to better clarify the specifications.
However, many who have received the card didn’t get the feeling the change was optional. Dudrey said she called the number of the card and finally reached someone locally after hours who told her it was only suggested.
“They weren’t going to inform the public,” she said.
She said it is unreasonable to expect people to tear things up to install the new boxes. Further more, with all the traffic that passes by her house, the new box would make easy targets for vandals.
Kerschen said it is an effort by the Central Plains Region to cut expenses. For to-the-door delivery, it costs the postal service about $358 per year per house, compared to curb-side which costs about $228.
“All existing customers can’t be mandated at this time,” Kerschen said. However, all new deliveries will have to be either curb-side or centralized (such as a neighborhood cluster of mailboxes).
He said the USPS lost 8.5 billion in 2010 and estimate a loss in 2011 of 8.5 billion or greater. “We are trying to do everything we can to cut our costs.”
“People say they want to save the Postal Service and we want to save the Postal Service,” Bell said. “But, times are changing and we’ve got to stay with it or die.”
Bell said there is a bill in Congress that could require changes in mailbox locations. “We don’t know. It’s up in the air.”
The Central Plains Region falls under the USPA’s Denver area which covers the western United States.