Community, developer at odds over mailboxes
By Joey Pitchford
Published in News on August 21, 2017 5:50 AM
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Without roadside mailboxes residents of Glenn Laurel Subdivision who live on Coffman Drive and Seward Place are forced to drive ten minutes to and from the post office in Pikeville to get their mail because the property's developer has not put in a cluster mailbox.
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News-Argus/CASEY MOZINGO
Without roadside mailboxes residents of Glenn Laurel Subdivision who live on Coffman Drive and Seward Place are forced to drive 10 minutes to and from the post office in Pikeville to get their mail because the property's developer has not put in a cluster mailbox.
Whenever Kelly Clark wants to get her mail, she drives 10 minutes from her home in the Glen Laurel subdivision to the post office in Pikeville.
She and her neighbors have been doing so for around a year, since they moved to two streets added to the subdivision at that time. They do not have roadside mailboxes, because the roads were built after the post office switched to cluster boxes - central structures containing several mail boxes where mail from multiple homes is delivered - as the standard mail receptacle.
They do not have those cluster boxes, Clark said, because the subdivision's developer, W. Hillman Ray Jr., refuses to put them in, even a year later.
"It's absurd that we're not getting the services we're supposed to have," she said. "This has been a whole year now, not very professional."
Developers are responsible for the purchase and installation of cluster boxes, according to a statement from USPS Mid-Carolinas and Greensboro Districts spokesman Philip Bogenberger. In order to do so, they must deed a plot of land to a builder for them to build the concrete pad and install the boxes, which Clark said Ray has refused to do.
Clark said she and her family were the first to move to Seward Place, one of the two new streets. After moving there in August of 2016, she said she waited for a resolution as the months ticked by.
None came. Wayne County Planning Director Chip Crumpler said that Ray attempted to get a waiver which would keep him from having to install the boxes, but was denied.
Ray Could not be reached for comment. A number for a Goldsboro business registered to his name is disconnected.
Not having a centralized place for mail delivery has put a strain on Clark and her neighbors, she said.
"Whenever we want out mail, we have to drive in to town," she said. "That's a lot of wear and tear on my car, money in gas, and it means people have to take time off work at least once a week."
Clark said that some of her neighbors have hired lawyers to pursue claims. She said she and several neighbors are considering legal action against Ray in small claims court.
"We want to get on the docket the same day," she said. "That's 17 homeowners all going in there at the same time."