Pikeville post office woes - Wayne-Wilson News Leader, Fremont, NC

9 August 2007 — Take a drive through downtown Pikeville, and you’ll notice there’s something missing – mailboxes. For years, all citizens living in the city limits of Pikeville have been provided with a post office box, rather than a mailbox at their home. But for some, this practice is beginning to be a problem.

Commissioner Johnny Weaver said he has been experiencing some problems in getting mail to his house because of the post office box system. He said that, though he tries to give his post office box address whenever possible, sometimes mail still comes addressed to his street address rather than his post office box. And rather than trying to find his P.O. box number, the post office simply returns the mail to the sender.

“If someone is trying to invite you to a wedding and looks up your address in the phone book, they’ll get the street address,” he said. “If you order something online, they won’t accept a P.O. box as a legal address.”

Commissioner Bruce Thomas expressed similar problems.
“I got a call from the Better Business Bureau,” he said. “Wake Med was trying to send us a bill and had our physical address, so we never got it. And then I get call saying I hadn’t paid a bill I didn’t even know they had sent.”

“I’m just concerned about the mail I don’t know I’m not getting,” said Commissioner Weaver.

He added that since he brought up the problem, he had heard from several citizens that expressed the same issues. However, the board had received a letter from the postal service saying that they could not deliver mail that did not have the post office box number on it.

“I don’t see how hard it is to put my name with my box number,” said Commissioner Thomas.

Vance Greeson of Parks Drive said that he had been through a struggle over the issue with the postal service, and has eventually gotten a mailbox at his home in town.

He explained that he had been told the problem lies in mail sorting, which actually takes place in Rocky Mount for citizens of Pikeville. Mail with post office box numbers are sorted into one pile, and mail with street addresses into another. When the mail arrives in Pikeville, the envelopes with street addresses that don’t have mailboxes are left to be returned to the sender.

“I had a sizeable check I was expecting that the state sent to my street address three times before I finally got it by FedEx,” he said. “The problem lies in the fact that none of the workers are from the here; they don’t know you. They’re unionized labor, and they’re job is to clear the floor at the end of the day.”

He said he didn’t understand why the Pikeville branch couldn’t cross-reference street addresses in some way with post office boxes.

“Legal forms have to have your street address,” he added.

He also said that he fought to get a mailbox at his house because of his son, who is in a wheelchair. Mr. Greeson said the current building has no handicap-accessible doors.

“I’ve witnessed it taking half an hour for someone in a wheelchair accessible van to get in and out of the post office,” he said.

Mr. Greeson did get a box at his house, but now must pay for his post office box because he uses both.

Commissioner Weaver stressed that he felt very strongly that something should be done to alleviate the mail problem.

“I hate to have it come to this, but I’m sure that there’s someone on every street in town who, by ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) standards qualifies for a home mailbox.”

If someone on the street has a mailbox, it becomes part of an established route, and the rest of the street could opt for a mailbox too.

“There are 300 people in town who have a post office box, and they need to be served,” Mr. Greeson said.

Mayor Sieger authorized town clerk Kathie Fields to draft a letter to the sorting center in Rocky Mount, as well as several congressmen, to address the concerns presented by the citizens.

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