By Stacey Grijalva
Quietly, an icon of American suburban life is fading into the night.
In the past seven years, the U.S. Postal Service has been removing the big blue mailboxes common to neighborhoods across the nation. The boxes are victims of budget cuts and fewer people sending letters.
More than 40,000 boxes in the United States have been removed, leaving less than 300,000.
Lexington is not exempt. Five of the city’s 22 blue mailboxes have been removed in the past couple of months.
But the Postal Service is now offering enhanced pick-up services to save citizens a trip to the post office. Residents in most areas may schedule pick-ups using the Postal Service's Web site.
Lexington’s Postmaster Larry Creamer explained that the boxes weren't removed arbitrarily. “There was an audit of all the boxes and if they received less than 25 pieces of mail daily, then we took them,” he said.
A few residents near the now-absent boxes were surprised when they walked out to send mail.
Joyce Noveras, a junior at Washington and Lee University, was one of those residents. “I’d use it to send bills for rent and energy and sometimes personal letters," said Noveras.
Noveras said she will probably drive to the post office to mail her bills, despite the next nearest box being two blocks away.
But not everyone has this option.
Another one of the missing mailboxes was near The Mayflower, an elderly care and assisted living center in Lexington.
“We didn’t even know it was gone,” said one employee. “It used to be here and then I couldn’t find it.”
Many residents said they assumed the mailbox had been moved or was being repainted.
Noveras noted that on her street, the postal worker does not stop to pick up outgoing mail when he or she isn't dropping off mail, even if the red flag on a mailbox indicating outgoing mail is raised.
The Postal Service is working to correct that.
Through the website www.usps.com/pickup <http://www.usps.com/pickup>, anyone can choose between two services to have the postal worker come to a house or business to pick up domestic or international packages.
Carrier Pickup is a free service in which the postal worker picks up any scheduled mail on the next pickup day, up to three months in advance. There are limits on weight, size and mail type. For example, parcel post, media mail, library mail, and bound printed matter must be combined with express, priority, or international mail to be picked up.
Residents can leave mail to be picked up at a few locations, such as a front door, back door, or mailbox. All international mail must be handed directly to the mail carrier.
Pickup-on-Demand is a paid service for packages that are time sensitive. Same-day pickups can be scheduled and, according to the Website, take about two hours. The $13.25 flat charge does not change no matter the number of packages. Only express mail, priority mail, and parcel post are available for Pickup on Demand.
While these services eliminate a trip to a mailbox, all packages must already be properly labeled and have appropriate postage. And residents must know the weight and dimensions of their package.
Despite all the website offers, residents of Rockbridge County appear to prefer the actual post office. Even a Web savvy student like Noveras is not likely to use either pickup service.
“I’d feel bad making him come to my house,” she said. “Why doesn’t he just stop at every house?”
Using the Lexington post office is not always easy. On a recent weekday afternoon, it was full, with no nearby parking available. One W&L student ran down part of Lee Avenue because he was parked illegally only to find a line wrapped around to block the main doors. More than two-thirds of the customers were either sending packages or were holding the yellow slips that indicate a piece of mail was too large to fit in a post office box.
As more people send bills online and use email instead of handwritten letters, the Postal Service expects a drop of a couple billion pieces of mail this year alone.
Produced by Washington and Lee journalism students.
Lead supervisor: Prof. Claudette Artwick
Reporting supervisors:
Technical supervisor: Michael Todd