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Outdoor Mailboxes Return To Postal Centers

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By CARL ORTH

corth@suncoastnews.com

Published: December 3, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY - Outdoor mailboxes have returned to duty at area post offices after disappearing for about two months.

Two new mailboxes were installed recently in the drive-through lane at the New Port Richey post office parking lot, several patrons reported.

Greg Giordano was "kind of excited" to see the outdoor boxes again. The chief legislative assistant to state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, Giordano often drops off the office mail on his way home.

In September, the boxes apparently were smashed, Giordano said. The next day they were gone.

For some two months, he was forced to park his car, go into the post office lobby and feed the pieces of mail into a slot, Giordano said. It's much easier to pull up to the outdoor boxes and slip the pieces of mail into the mailbox's chute.

"It seemed like a while," Giordano said about the period without the outdoor boxes.

Evemarie Lewin would agree. She complained in September about the prolonged absence of the outdoor mailboxes at the Hudson and Port Richey post offices.

On a trip to Chicago, she made it a point to count the number of outdoor mailboxes she saw.

"They were everywhere. In Chicago, they were practically on every street corner," Lewin said.

Upon her return, she really noticed the lack of boxes. "What a difference."

A few weeks ago, replacement mailboxes were installed at the Hudson and Embassy Crossing facilities, she said.

Eight mailboxes in the west Pasco area had been tagged for replacement, according to Gary Sawtelle, regional spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service, based in Tampa

The postal service freshens up its outdoor mailboxes from time to time, Sawtelle said.

Annual reviews also might indicate the need to relocate boxes, Sawtelle said. The threshold is 25 pieces of mail a day to justify an outdoor mailbox.

In a few instances, vandalism or accidents might damage boxes, which apparently was the case at the New Port Richey and Embassy Crossing facilities.

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