Lehigh Valley residents moving into new housing developments soon could find themselves trekking much farther than the curb to retrieve mail.
After receiving mail for a week upon moving into the Maple Shade Estates development in July, his mail delivery suddenly stopped. The U.S. Postal Service, under a cost savings plan, told residents it would no longer be delivering to individual homes and wants developer Tuskes Homes to construct cluster mailboxes.
Rick Solofsky stands at his mailbox Sept 25 2014 in front of his home on Church Road. After spending $350 on the box and the installation the post office refuses to deliver mail to his sub division. (Sue Beyer| lehighvalleylive.com)
But, the development, bordering Palmer and Bethlehem Townships, has 12 homes built already and expects a total of 78 structures completed by 2016. Residents in opposition — as well as builder Mike Tuskes — say there’s no room to build cluster mailboxes unless a property owner wants to give up a chunk of his or her own land.
“Not only is this frustrating for us as homeowners, but it is time-consuming and frustrating for the workers at the post office,” Zerfass said. “How is this saving the post office time when they have to perform this process for everyone in the neighborhood?”
John DeRemer, of Bethlehem Township, and Matt Sennecca, of Palmer Township, both said they wanted more communication by the postal service about the issue.
Smitty just hit on the exact reason the public used to keep offices that should have been closed open. Every town hall meeting, every whining congressperson wailed about the loss of the only community meeting place.
and TSP says once again “wah wah wah”
everyone is missing the point: your friendly postal service is merely encouraging nieghbors to gather round the cluster box and get to know one another while getting thier mail instead of snubbing noses as they drive past your mail box. the PO is bringing people together, no need for match.com to meet folks.
once a mode of delivery is established it cannot be changed unless the customer agrees to it. but, postal mgt. seems to think it can violate its own policies…just like the way it violates the contract.
Sounds like PO encourage people to use more online billing.
Mail comes from thousands of miles from the recipient’s home, so what’s the big deal if these customers have to drive or walk a short distance to complete the delivery? The USPS has done all the hard work, so pitch in a little and reap a lot. And yes, my neighborhood has cluster boxes and I love the walk I take everyday to get my mail.
Yes Kathy but I’ve never seen a mailbox without the endorsement “Approved by the Postmaster General”. Since the Postmaster General
doesn’t touch mail or mailboxes he approves most any design. Just another example of the wrong people making bad decisions at USPS.
Subdivision’s or gated communities should not be allowed to put up stupid mailboxes a stupid mailbox is a box that requires two hands to serve, a carrier should be able to put the flag down open the box put mail in and pull mail out then shut the lid with one hand in about 30 seconds or so.
Yes I know the Post Office is in the communications business but you won’t get much from them,it’s called stall,stall,and stall.
Someone should tell them about “Established Delivery”
There use to be a postal law that said once a delivery point was established, the Postal Service had to continue to deliver until the customer moved. Wonder what happen to that law?
The USPS is not allowed to change method of delivery without the majority of the customers involved approving it.
Of course, as usual, usps mgmt ignores anything it signs.
The only people usps mgmt. hates more than usps craft employees, are usps customers.
all new developments get cluster boxes these days- postal service considers it easier for carrier to deliver to one cluster box than to to drive or walk to individual mailboxes- it’s all about time it takes to deliver