1/9/2020 The abrupt replacement of mailman Bill McInerney has been met with protests from neighbors in Hamilton Beach and parts of Old Howard Beach. In just a year, he had gotten to know the residents personally and rarely missed a day.
Photo by michael shain
Hamilton Beach is passionate about its postman.
Bill McInerney had been delivering the mail in Hamilton Beach and part of Old Howard Beach — including the business district in Coleman Square — for only a year now. But he has made a lasting impression.
Roger Gendron, president of the Hamilton Beach Civic Association, recalled how, when his aunt was ill and staying at a cousin’s house nearby, McInerney knew about it.
“He started delivering her mail to my cousin’s house — and he did it automatically,” said Gendron. “No one asked him. Where do you find that anymore?”
So, when he found out last month he was going to be transferred to a new route, the mailman began to say goodbye to residents.
That’s when the packages hit the fan.
Up in arms over the transfer, scores of residents started posting messages on the civic association’s Facebook page.
Meanwhile, the office of state Sen. Joe Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) just over the bridge in Old Howard Beach started to get phone calls — which really were unnecessary. McInerney was Addabbo’s mailman too, and the staff in his office was just as alarmed to hear he was going, the senator told the Chronicle.
The news that McInerney was leaving “became very personal to the people on his route,” Gendron explained.
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