PORTLAND, Ore. — Diane Foster runs two small businesses out of her home on Northeast Emerson, so mail and package delivery are vital to her.

But she hasn’t gotten any deliveries since August, when her neighbor’s dog ran after a mail carrier.

It was the same dog that bit a letter carrier last year. After the second incident the post office stopped delivering mail to the dog’s owner, along with Foster and eight other neighbors.

“I used to sell things on the internet, the post office would pick it up on my porch, so that isn’t happening anymore,” Foster said.

The Postal Service says they plan to address the issue by installing a cluster box unit — or CBU — to serve the whole street, but Foster has several problems with that plan.

So she started doing some research and came across Section 631.6 of the Postal Operations Manual. She read the section to us.

“It says that customer signatures must be obtained prior to any conversion. In single-family housing areas, including manufactured housing, mobile homes where the residential lots are owned, each owner must agree to the conversion in writing. Owners who do not agree must be allowed to retain their current mode of delivery,” Foster read.

Foster says no one gave written permission for this, and fears the post office is just trying to save money by reducing delivery costs. Read more