Minnesota Prairie Roots

SOMETIMES BUREAUCRATIC DECISIONS make zero sense.

Like this example from Faribault. The local post office, several weeks ago, posted a note on a collection point mailbox that sits along an alley by the post office.

Customers can no longer deposit mail in the box because, according to the notice, the mailbox had been damaged. I can only assume a vehicle hit the mailbox, a possibility when people drive up and drop their mail therein.

But I’ve used this mailbox for decades and I can’t remember any previous such incident. I recall only the time about a year ago when the box overflowed with mail as did another collection box outside Faribault City Hall.

Whatever, the specifics, I am frustrated by the decision to close this particular collection box. I use it all the time. Yes, I’m among the declining number of people who still mail things like greeting cards, thank you notes and bill payments. Why alienate a good customer?

The signage directs customers to use the collection box in front of the post office. Good, we have an option. But that requires either stopping at the end of the alley and exiting my vehicle or parking street side to mail an item. I’m not lazy. I can get out of my vehicle and I can walk. But I don’t like walking across snow and ice. That’s my gripe. I could stay in my vehicle and avoid dealing with weather-related issues by using this mail drop-off point.

The box is also conveniently located downtown.

After 9/11, the post office pulled many collection boxes around Faribault. I learned to deal with that, although I didn’t agree with the decision. And I certainly don’t agree with removing this much-used collection box.

Based on two suggestions scrawled on the official notice, other customers are unhappy, too. They’ve even offered a solution: Move this one back a foot.

Makes sense to me.

© Copyright 2019 Audrey Kletscher Helbling