Support heard for curbside delivery as post installation begins along routes
Acting Rogers City postmaster Rob Gross has started the process of installing the first of 50 curbside mailbox posts in Rogers City this week, and hopes other customers volunteer to move their mailbox from their house to the curb as well. Gross says ?this change will make it safer and more efficient for our carriers.?
Surveys went out with the carriers within the last week. An original proposal to switch many Rogers City residents to curbside delivery met with fierce opposition at an August 18 Rogers City Council meeting. But since the meeting, Gross has heard from people on the other side of the issue, who support the efforts of the local post office. ?Those citizens out there have read the articles and have seen what we?ve tried to do,? said Gross.
PEOPLE HAVE come forward and volunteered to move their mailbox to the curb ? and that includes a handful who signed petitions against the original proposal. ?They signed the petition, and they are saying ?I?m sorry, I shouldn?t have signed the petition before I read about it, can you guys put up this box?? ? Gross said. In addition, citizens have purchased mailboxes already and asked when they could be installed, he said. There were others at the council meeting who supported Gross but didn?t speak up, he later learned.
?They were afraid their neighbors were going to hear them,? Gross said. ?That?s no way for this to be.? ?I?m going with who wants to voluntarily do it right now,? said Gross, ?then I?m going to take the survey to the areas that had come forward with their concerns.?
WHILE THE plans have shifted since the first proposals, Gross said he remains committed to converting as many boxes as possible. ?I?m not giving up the ship on anything,? said Gross. ?Everything is still going to go forward as much as I can do it.? If half a block agrees to voluntarily move their mailbox and the other half doesn?t, he will install the mailboxes on the half that allows it.
?I?m going to show them this winter that snow plowing is not a problem and that people didn?t have a problem getting their mail,? said Gross. ?Then next spring I?m going to be saying, ?hey, half the block is (curbside), and the half a block that isn?t, is going to have to change.? ?
?I had a lot of elderly people call me with concerns about this,? said Gross. ?I guess my main question for the elderly residents is exactly this: Can you drive? If you can drive, then you can have a curb delivery box because you are either walking to your vehicle, which means you can walk to the curb, or you?re driving your vehicle almost every day which means you can pick up your mail with your vehicle.? Others who have disabilities and can?t leave their residence will not be affected.
CURBSIDE DELIVERY was the method of delivery before World War II in Rogers City, but was abandoned somewhat to conserve gasoline. Carriers started delivering door-to-door and people switched from curbside to their houses, Gross said. ?This is not new to Rogers City, by far.? According to
The Cheboygan post office is attempting to convert 400 customers to curbside service and the change, which was proposed in letters, has not been without opposition, but for the most part carriers have said comments have been ?mostly positive.? Other cities involved in the changeover are Kincheloe, Petoskey, and Battle Creek, which has 13,000 customers going to curbside service.
?This office has agreed to pay for whatever boxes that we need to get this in place and up. If they have a box that they need to move, we?ll move it if they don?t have the time to do it,? said Gross. The free mailboxes are for customers who can?t afford a new one or for those who recently purchased one. Gross said, ?It?s not right in those cases to make them buy a second box, because that?s what I?m asking them to do. That?s why I have agreed to pay for those who can?t afford to do it themselves.?