Council ponders mail options

The City of Sisters is exploring new mail options. photo by Torri Barco

The Sisters City Council is taking steps to provide free mail delivery to residents. Many are fed up with post office box fees or with long waits for counter-top general delivery.

The council met with city staff and the branch postmaster in a workshop on Thursday, September 25, to discuss the option of providing home mail delivery.

The issue was initially brought before the city council in May 2000 when it was determined that all 1,860 Sisters branch post office boxes were in use. Since then, out-of-luck residents join P.O. box waiting lists at The Pony Express and the Post Office, and often wait in line to pick up their mail from the general delivery counter at the post office.

Merle Monroe, a retired resident in Edge of the Pines, said he was especially disgruntled to find he has to pay $24 per year for his P.O. box, when he has no other option for mail delivery. Monroe, who has used his P.O. box for six years, said he paid $8 for his first year until it was raised to $12 , then to $24.

"I feel like we're being treated as second-class citizens because we have to pay for it," Monroe said. "If you go to rural areas, you don't have to pay."

The city council also expressed concern over traffic congestion around the post office. Anticipating this problem, the city required mailboxes for new subdivisions in its 2001 development code, City Administrator Eileen Stein said.

New subdivisions which will acquire mail delivery will include Tamarack Village Apartments off of Larch Avenue and the approximately 40 houses that are under construction in the proposed adjacent subdivision.

The postal service has not yet made provision for older neighborhoods, but some could be included if they are positioned along the mail delivery route for the new subdivisions, said Patricia Green, postmaster.

Green told the council the postal service might be able to extend the route in some circumstances including areas past the elementary school and the bus barns, but could not accommodate streets like Sisters Avenue, which does not have room for a delivery truck to pull over and stop.

Mayor David Elliott told The Nugget he wants all residents to have the option of free mail delivery.

"The first thing is to be treated equally," Elliott said. "We have to pay for mail, whereas everyone else gets it for free. If cluster boxes in neighborhoods is the only way to do it, then that's the way to go.

"I think residents would jump at the chance for free delivery," he said. "Personally, I like going to the post office. I'm in town for work anyways and it's a social place. Personally, I don't think I will participate in cluster boxes, but many retired residents might find it to be a really nice walk for them to go down the street to get the mail."