City studies sites for cluster mailboxes

The U.S. Postal Service will break ground on a new post office along Larch Street at the north end of Sisters next month.

When the new post office is operational, the City of Sisters hopes to give mail customers on the south side of Cascade Avenue an option besides getting in their car and driving across the highway to pick up their mail.

At a workshop last Thursday, the city council reviewed a number of potential sites for "cluster mailboxes" to serve both the commercial and the residential neighborhoods south of Cascade Avenue.

Mayor Brad Boyd made a last pitch to Postmaster Yvonne Balderson for home delivery.

"We don't have city delivery carriers," Balderson said. "It's not going to happen."

Balderson noted that it's not her decision one way or another and that postal service policy is moving away from old-fashioned home delivery.

"The Post Office is moving more and more to central delivery," she said.

Given that, city planners and councilors agree that the more bays of cluster boxes that are put up in neighborhoods, the more convenient it will be for mail customers.

"The more locations we have, the greater the likelihood that people can walk to them," said city planning director Eric Porter.

Porter noted, however, that the city needs to be sensitive to safety concerns and to visual impact.

"It's virtually impossible to hide these completely," he said. "They're going to be visible."

With concerns for visual impact and sufficient room for vehicle pullout and sight lines in mind, Porter and his staff came up with a list of three sites for commercial cluster boxes in the downtown area and approximately five scattered around the southern residential neighborhoods.

The cluster boxes can hold from 16 to about 30 individual mail boxes. Councilors emphasized that they'd rather have more locations with fewer boxes in each to avoid drawing traffic onto quiet residential streets.

The ideal would be for a bay of cluster boxes to serve the homes immediately surrounding it within walking distance.

Currently, the city is looking at commercial sites at Larch Street and Hood Avenue; on Hood Avenue near Ash Street; and a site on Pine Street just south of Hood Avenue.

Potential residential sites are one near the Village Green, one near Oak Street and St. Helens Avenue; one at the corner of Spruce Street and St. Helens; one on the side of Elm Street a block-and-a-half before it crosses Whychus Creek; and one at Pine Street and W. Sisters View Avenue in the extreme southwest corner of town.

These locations are preliminary. The city will host at least a couple of community meetings and ask for public comment on a draft location map before making any final decisions.

Porter noted that staff had reviewed a proposal to site cluster boxes at the site of the current post office. Porter argues that doing so would encumber the property and make it less desirable to lease for retail use (the post office leases the current site from a private owner).

He also said that centralized bays would not have the desired effect of reducing vehicle trips.

Staff calculates that there is a need for 128 boxes to accommodate commercial customers and 307 boxes needed to serve existing and future residential customers. The post office will pay approximately $33,600 for the boxes. It has not yet been determined who will pay for concrete and installation.

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

• Email: editor@nuggetnews.com
• Phone: 5415499941