The Notice!

The Sheridan WY. Post Office is taking the Big Blue Mail Box away from Sheridan Square Apartments, which houses 75 Apartments with the elderly and/or disabled, with many being veterans!

Big Blue Mailbox who will disappear on 11-22-10!

The Sheridan, WY Post office has issued an edict, that on 11-22-2010 the big blue mail box outside the Sheridan Square Apartments will be removed. Residents will no longer have a place for their outgoing mail.

Sheridan Square Apartments, in beautiful Downtown Sheridan, WY.

With 75 apartments in a 6 story apartment building, all with either the elderly and/or disabled, with some of the residents also being veterans who are disabled. Now, who came up with this brilliant idea you ask? Of course the local Post Office blames their superiors, where ever they may be.

Mailboxes at Sheridan Square, in Sheridan, WY!

The logic behind this move is that the pickups at said mailbox, scheduled for 2pm every day, on Monday through Friday, and at 1pm on Saturday where they drive their little postal truck, and they stop by to pick up the mail from this very mailbox, and we are not producing enough for this special service! They are saying because we do not meet their guidelines from the throne-sitters in Washington (No Common Sense) D.C., that being that our daily average is less the 25 pieces of outgoing mail. Now, I don’t no if that average is based on this past year’s numbers, last month’s, or even last week’s. Nor, from watching the carrier that drives around and empties it, have I never seen them actually sit there and count the outgoing mail. That would take time, and money, and that is what the post office is intending with this new policy. I’ve watched them scan the inside of the box, probably to record on their little scanner thing that they actually stopped here, but I never saw them count the mail. Ever! Maybe they do, or don’t, but if I was in charge, I would just dump and run, and get onto the next metal mailbox. That’s me though, but you know the government and regulations.

Collection times for mailbox in question. Notice when the new notice was posted!

We are not the only ones who are having our mailbox removed, as there are a total of 9 in Sheridan that don’t meet these guidelines. Yet, in these guidelines they are lacking one crucial item, that being common sense. Look at all the mail boxes we have, and we can’t put out going mail in them, but instead we are required to go to the Post Office, or the Mail Box that the Hallmark store gets to have by it’s place pf business. (Umm… Hallmark… Cards… Mailing those cards… their own special mailbox? Umm… I wonder how many elderly and/or disabled live in the Hallmark Store? Maybe it’s a nice Christmas bonus that gets one their own mailbox?)
I also find it kind of suspicious that they have decided to remove this mailbox a month before Christmas, which is is probably the time for the biggest use of this mailbox in question, for mailing Christmas and Holiday Cards. And we are heading into our Wyoming winter. What are they trying to do, kill us off quicker? I question a lot of their ill-conceived motives.

Memo attached to mailbox noting its future removal!

So, what it comes down to is this, the 75 elderly and/or disabled residents will have to either walk about 1/3 of a mile, one-way to mail something, or use a vehicle they may have, although a lot of the folks here don’t have vehicles, but if they do, they will burn up fossil fuels, and pollute our environment, or they can call the senior mini-bus, pay $5.00 to go mail an item at the post office, also burning up fossil fuels and polluting the environment. Most of the people here live at or below the poverty level. A lot don’t have computers to pay their bills online, or have even used a computer. These are old school folks here, where the US Mail was everything. Now, the US Mail is screwing them, all to save a couple of dollars, so they think.
Now our politicians talk about common sense solutions, so here is one- Leave the big blue mailbox. Change the pickup time to be when the carrier delivers the mail. If we supposedly don’t have that much going out, then it will be a win-win for the carrier. They will be unloading a lot of mail, as people and companies still mail us stuff, along with the tons of packages we get here, all money being spent at the Post Office. All this money goes into the coffers of the post office, but for a few dimes, they want to screw the 75 elderly and/or disabled residents at Sheridan Square Apartments by not having a pickup location on our property. I guess 75 elderly and disabled Americans are unimportant for the Post Office to use a little bit of Wyoming common sense! Ah, I get it, they get their marching orders from the golden-throne sitters in Washington, where common sense is a rare commodity. So, just leave the darn mailbox, so when you deliver our mail, and then finish and start to leave, you open the little blue mailbox and pickup the outgoing mail. (Or you can place a smaller one inside, in the lobby if you want) No need to come back later, or anything like that. Also, what do you do for the residents around town? Do you count their outgoing mail, and if they go below a certain average, do you no longer take their outgoing mail? They pay the same 44¢ for a stamp as we do, so either they are getting better service then us, or we are being screwed, again. I mean it is bad enough that when we get packages, unlike UPS or FedEx, we don’t get them delivered to our apartment’s. If I still had a house, would I get it delivered to my front door? Of course I would, then why not here? We pay the same shipping as a homeowner, but we get less service. Customer Service seems to be a thing of the past. And those that provide it, well they will always get my business.

So, just leave the big blue mailbox, and just pickup the mail when you deliver our mail. No if’s, and’s, or but’s! Or excuses! We got screwed by Social Security the past 2 years with no COLA because of the flawed used of the geo-metrically weighed CPI numbers, and now the Post Office is taking our mailbox, and forcing us to trudge threw Wyoming Blizzards just to mail out our bills, or request a new supply of insulin all because of some arbitrary piece per day requirement the elderly and/or disabled must abide by, but not every citizen. WHY? Maybe we should all place 75 metal mailboxes on posts out in front of the apartments? How does that sound? The Americans With Disabilities Act should help us here, or someone with a brain and common sense. Is there anyone from the government listening? What are we paying our elected representatives for?