By Shannon Lukens.

 

Routt County Commissioner Tim Corrigan is stepping in on the problems at the Steamboat Springs Post Office.

“I just want to express my disappointment that the post office chooses to provide excuses for why they can’t get their job done instead of simply just doing their job and delivering the mail.”

 

Corrigan and other elected officials and their representatives were at a meeting Jan. 31 in which James Boxrud, from USPS Communications attended. Corrigan says that at the start of the meeting, Boxrud told the group that he had just heard about the problems at the Steamboat Springs Post Office the week before, which would have been the last full week in January.

Steamboat Radio News has been in touch with Boxrud regularly since early January, and before that, in September, about problems like trash, ice and accidents in the parking lot, and no mail service to many areas of Routt County. (News story list is below.)

In an email on Feb. 7, Boxrud wrote, “As you know, we have all of our resources focused on delivery issues in Steamboat right now.”

 

SHOULD RESIDENTS HAVE TO PAY FOR A PO BOX IF THEY CAN’T GET THEIR MAIL DELIVERED?

Now, the questions to corporate officials in Denver are why Steamboat and Routt County residents have to pay for a P.O. Box when they have no other way to get their mail. It’s called the United States Postal Service’s Universal Service Obligation.

Here’s Commissioner Corrigan.

“I think it’s really unfortunate. I have never paid for a PO Box as long as I have lived in the outer part of the county. In Clark, Oak Creek, Phippsburg, and now in Yampa. I have never had to pay for a PO Box. And I have a hard time understanding why that is being inflicted upon Steamboat and Routt County residents.”

 

Jennifer MacNeil lives off County Road 35. Some of her neighbors have mailboxes, but her house doesn’t, so she has to pay for a P.O. Box at the post office in Steamboat Springs.

“In my neighborhood, we have some neighbors who have mail receptacles like cluster boxes. Adjacent to my neighborhood, on the way to my house, there are homeowners with mailboxes. But there are some of us in my neighborhood that don’t have the option to have home delivery. We have asked the postmaster if they could install cluster boxes for those of us without home delivery, and we have been told no. So there’s a portion of us that have to purchase PO Boxes at the post office to receive our mail when we watched neighbors literally on the same route getting home delivery right next to us.”

 

ONE STEAMBOAT RESIDENT MADE ALL OF THE ARRANGEMENTS HERSELF

Not everyone in Steamboat Springs has a cluster box, despite the City Development Code that requires cluster boxes for new developments. Lori Mitchell lives in Old Town Steamboat Springs. She took it upon herself to arrange a cluster box on her street. It took her two and a half years and residents in the neighborhood had to pay for it.

“I had to keep going back and forth, back and forth. Nobody could say, ‘This is how you do it,’ right? It’s as if I was the first resident to do this. It’s very bizarre. So I ended up doing it all myself. It took about two and a half years.”

 

REQUEST FROM CONGRESSMAN NEGUSE’S OFFICE

In an email obtained by Steamboat Radio News, a representative from Congressman Joe Neguse’s office has specifically requested follow up on this, by yesterday, of USPS officials in Denver.

1. We ask that you please clarify USPS policy on fees for PO boxes charged to residents who do not have any options for residential mail delivery. We further request that you investigate whether the Steamboat Springs Post Office is abiding by all applicable USPS policies on this matter. If not, we ask that the Steamboat Springs Post Office immediately stop charging PO box fees to Routt County residents who do not have the option of residential delivery. We also ask that you implement a process to identify customers who have been charged fees in error and provide them with refunds as soon as possible.

UPDATE at 7:40 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 9 Here is the response to this question from Brenda Baldwin/Customer Relations Manager (A) CO/WY/United States Postal Service.

“USPS policy regarding free P.O. Boxes can be found in our Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) under section 508.4. We’re currently evaluating various criteria for Steamboat Post Office Box holders that take into account local laws, physical barriers, access to rural delivery etc. and reviewing who is eligible for Group E (Free) no fee Post Office Boxes in the future.”

CONGRESSMAN JOE NEGUSE CALLS FOR ACTION TO MAIL PROBLEMS IN STEAMBOAT SPRINGS

 

SEND US YOUR STORY

Steamboat Radio News is keeping a list of people who have had to pay for a PO Box, how long they’ve been paying, and why they think they shouldn’t have to pay since they don’t have access to any home delivery.

Please email your comments with your neighborhood or street to Shannon@SteamboatRadio.com

 

POTENTIAL LITIGATION

In the meantime, the Steamboat Springs City Council has directed City Manager Gary Suiter to explore potential litigation with the City of Crested Butte and eight other mountain communities against the U.S. Postal Service, due to substandard serve at the mountain town post office. Routt County Commissioner Tim Corrigan says he hopes the city reaches out to Routt County officials to be involved as well.

 

More Steamboat Radio News coverage of issues at the Steamboat Springs Post Office:

• SHOULD YOU BE PAYING FOR YOUR PO BOX IN STEAMBOAT?
• CONGRESSMAN JOE NEGUSE CALLS FOR ACTION TO MAIL PROBLEMS IN STEAMBOAT SPRINGS  
• STEAMBOAT LOCALS VOLUNTEER TO START CLEANING THE POST OFFICE   
•   ICY RUTS IN POST OFFICE PARKING LOT ARE CAUSING DAMAGE TO VEHICLES   
•  STEAMBOAT SPRINGS POST OFFICE UPDATE   
• WHERE’S THE MAIL IN STEAMBOAT SPRINGS?   
• TOO MUCH TRASH AT STEAMBOAT SPRINGS POST OFFICE