Newly installed post office boxes in the revamped Healey Square in Oak Bluffs could be coming down as quickly as they went up.
Town officials say they were surprised that the new boxes were put in this past weekend without any input from the town and are asking the post office to take them out.
Oak Bluffs select board chair Gail Barmakian said the new installments were meant to alleviate the extensive lines at the post office, but she said that the way the postal agency went about installing them is problematic because no permission was sought from the town.
According to Barmakian, the postal service is renting its space on Kennebec Avenue. Any time changes are made to town property, those changes are supposed to go before the select board. Barmakian raised the question of liability noting that if someone were to get hurt from the boxes, like a child playing with them, the town would be on the hook.
Barmakian had first raised the procedural concern at Tuesday’s select board meeting. She said a U.S. Postal Service official agreed the installment could be taken down and the walkway restored.
Barmakian told the Times on Wednesday the town administrator, Deborah Potter, had put in a request for the boxes to be removed.
If the postal service wants to reinstall the boxes, Barmakian said they would need to speak with the town first. This would also allow discussion on a design that fits the area. She said it hasn’t been decided whether the matter will be addressed again in an upcoming select board meeting.
The newly installed post office boxes have had a mixed review from Vineyard social media users, but many decried that they were placed in Healey Square after the area had undergone a renovation.
“I don’t think they should be there,” Oak Bluffs resident George Tucker, who was sitting at a Healey Square bench feeding sparrows, said on Wednesday. He said the placement of the boxes got in the way of some people, especially if someone was opening one of them.
Congestion could particularly be an issue during the bustling summer season, Barmakian said.
A U.S. Postal Service representative was not immediately available for comment.
Although we received a package in one of those new shiny boxes, on the same day we also had a dreaded “yellow slip” in our mailbox, for which I had to stand in line for over 45 minutes. Both of the packages would have fit into the shiny box, but apparently there’s no system wherein anyone would know that.
On another note, I’m told that without a box number the mail cannot be delivered to my box. Oddly enough, the junk mail for the Crafts store on Circuit Avenue is often placed in my box, obviously without my box number. Nice try, folks. My insurance renewal got returned, as did my new credit card, for lack of box number. I’ve lived here over 50 years; can’t there be a cross-reference list: name/box number? “Oh, no, that would be too cumbersome, take too much time.” Good question where the new shiny boxes are going to go.
50 years sara? It seems like just yesterday. I too have had important information returned due to lack of a box number included on the address label…some of which has affected my credit. I agree, there has to be a simple way of cross referencing.
Sarah–I have a po box and a physical address in V.H that the PO
does not deliver to.
I have learned to never use that “address 2 ” line.
I have also learned that if i don’t know the carrier
I just put my address with a dash to indicate my po box.
without calling it a po box.
for instance– don keller
1234 so and so street- 1234
it seems to work.
But you know,I miss the vines at the V.H post office, and the birds
that lived there– what a dismal disgrace to destroy the habitat
of hundreds of birds there without a single public discussion or comment.
The town should never has messed with Healey Square, which was already very pleasant, with established plantings.
The plantings are relatively new.
Gail certainly has a handle on all of the really serious issues facing Oak Bluffs. Way to flex those muscles.
This island is a trip. Social media is always abuzz on how bad the lines are at the post office and how the postal service doesn’t give a damn about islanders. Then they come along and spend money to solve the problem but “Oh wait! Queen Gail and her court have not been consulted”.
This is a “let them eat cake”, I mean “let them stand in line” situation. Thanks Gail. You are the “Queen of NO!” I can’t wait until you get booted out at the polls.
How does this happen ? Regardless of the merits of these boxes
or the concerns about children getting injured by “playing with them”,
aren’t there some guidelines and procedures laid out in advance?
How is it that whoever authorised this project had no clue
about its legality ?
Or perhaps this is totally legal and the Federal PO has every right to do it
and the town officials are the idiots– But it’s clear, someone is or was an idiot,
and it’s costing the taxpayers money.
Stupid is as stupid does–
And please don’t get me wrong– I’m not blaming
anybody, I’m blaming everybody.
The boxes are a good idea IMO and help shorten the line, that being said, it’s inexcusable for the Post Office to install them on town property without consulting them.
Definitely not sure if they could have found another location, possibly the back?
Back in the olden days, (the unfriendly angry single window employee began under Leonard)
Prior to him the postmaster and staff were friendly kind helpful and several windows to serve us the citizens and visitors. Incorrect and missing addresses were NOT a problem as everyone pretty much knew someone in the family, they would place mail in a parents or grandparents box so you always got your mail. When I was living in California and visited I had no problem getting mail.
I believe that the postal system is run as a business and not a service paid for by the taxpayers visitors and citizens of the United States of America.
The personable has become robotic.
Brenda, there is something else
going on with the postal service—it
isn’t the individual at the window—it’s
Louis DeJoy who acts like the Gestapo
to the postal employees.
https://www.casey.senate.gov/news/releases/senator-casey-presses-postmaster-general-dejoy-for-answers-following-complaints-from-pa-postal-workers-and-residents
So true
Back in the day if only my name and town was on an envelope it would fine it’s way to my box.
I certainly don’t expect that to happen but that’s how it worked out back then. And you could send mail to another island town without it leaving for sorting and then coming back a week later.
Times are always changing. We just have to roll with it.
This is outrageous, there is no longer any privacy when getting your mail at the post office.
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