Postal Service Removes and Returns Mailbox

The Baltimore Sun is reporting, "Many of the familiar blue mailboxes in Central Maryland will be casualties of a U.S. Postal Service effort to become more efficient. More than 800 of the boxes have been removed in the past decade from Cumberland to the Eastern Shore, and now 350 more will be uprooted."

USPS spokeswoman Freda Sauter said the postal service will maintain at least one blue box within every square mile of residential area. But local resident Robert C. Ohlverter said that's too far for older residents: "I've got replacement knees, and there's a lot of people who can't do that."

In a related story that appears in the Hagerstown, MD Herald-Mail, one senior citizen got her mailbox returned after it had been removed.

St. Mildred St. John, 81, is quoted in an article by Dan Dearth as saying the Postal Service's decision to remove the mailbox made it difficult to send letters because she and her neighbors, who also are senior citizens, find it hard to get around, and can't walk to the nearest mailbox a few blocks away.

St. John is quoted as saying she wasn't sure why the Postal Service decided to return the mailbox, but suspected the reason could be traced to a letter that her neighbor wrote to U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.

USPS spokeswoman Freda Sauter said she wasn't certain why the mailbox was put back either, but that the Postal Service typically returns removed mailboxes when several people call or write to complain. During the current round of removals, four boxes in Baltimore were reinstalled in response to complaints from customers.

Shown above, Robert C. Ohlverter of Federal Hill next to his neighborhood mailbox which has been tagged for removal.

To read the Baltimore Sun article, click here.

To read the Herald-Mail article, click here.