Local residents wait as mail issues continue

John Sanders and his wife Jessica have been living in their home on East South Main Street in Dexter for two years now. And, while some people have resorted to paying their bills online, the Sanders family receives their bills through the mail.

The only problem is they aren't getting their mail.

"I received a 'final notice' from the post office on June 9," John Sanders explained. "The notice says I need to move my mailbox in order to avoid future complications with getting my mail."

But, according to both John and Jessica, there shouldn't be any complications.

"If you look down the sidewalk, you'll see that our mailbox is right in line with everyone else's mailbox," John Sanders remarked. "But everyone else is getting their mail."

The Sanders family initially started having issues with getting their mail when they were told they couldn't park in front of their mailbox.

"We started parking across the street to accommodate them," Jessica Sanders said. "It's a steep drop-off there, and that scares me. Plus, this can be a busy street, and when I have two small kids on my hip and two others running around, I'm not very comfortable."

Despite any misgivings they may have with parking across the street, they do as they have been asked. And, for a while, they say, things got better.

"All of a sudden, we weren't getting our mail," John explained. "It was like they would wait until so much of our mail would stack up and they would finally deliver it to us."

When John Sanders went to the post office to find out what the problem might be, he thought he had found a solution when he was told the postmaster would come to his residence and show him where the mailbox should be placed.

"They stood me up twice, now," John Sanders remarked. "I told them I'll nail the mailbox to the tree if that would make things easier; but, they said no."

The most recent solution offered to John Sanders by the post office has been to uproot his mailbox post, put it in a five-gallon bucket with cement, and drag it to the side of the road every morning.

"I'm not doing that," John Sanders said. 'If they want to come out and dig the hole for the post, I'll move my mailbox."

The real issue, according to John and Jessica, is that no one else on their block seems to be having any of the same problems.

"The thing is, we're supposed to get our mail," John remarked. "They can't keep us from getting it. It's not like being customers and deciding to go to one store instead of the other. We don't have any other options besides the post office."

John Sanders noted that he and his wife have not yet been late paying any bills.

"But, it's down to the wire every single month when we actually get the bills in the mail," John said. "We're just lucky we haven't missed any yet."

According to Dexter Postmaster Patrick Powell, however, the Sanders family continues to block their mailbox with their vehicle.

"It's all about safety," Powell explained. "I'm not going to make my carrier get out where they could be attacked by a dog. It's a safety issue; and that's the number one thing. That (Sanders) residence's specific reason for not getting mail is that they park in front of the mailbox."

When asked, Powell said he had sent a couple letters to the Sanders residence; but, he hadn't scheduled a time to get with them to relocate their mailbox.

John said he believes he won't get any solutions from the local post office, so he decided to call the postal center in Kansas City.

"I called them four times now," John explained. "And each time, they've said they have no record of me calling before."

John said the last time he called was the most frustrating for him.

"When I explained what was going on, for the fourth time, the lady on the other line said I should call my congressman," John remarked. "She said, 'Call your congressman. He needs your vote.'"

John said what bothers him more than anything is the seeming lack of accountability on the part of the post office.

"I mean, they're part of the federal government," John reasoned. "They have an obligation to us. But it feels like I'm being bullied into moving my mailbox, just so I can get what I'm supposed to get."