Allentown Borough Council plans to lobby Postal Service officials to allow mail to be delivered to more street addresses.
By: Marisa Maldonado
ALLENTOWN The Borough Council plans to lobby Postal Service officials to make mail delivery easier for residents and businesses in a certain area of the town.
Allentown is designated as a rural community by the U.S. Postal Service, meaning that any residence or business located less than a quarter of a mile from the post office at 12 S. Main St. must have their mail delivered to a post office box.
Members of the Borough Council plan to lobby local and regional Postal Service officials to add street addresses within the quarter-mile area to the national grid allowing mail to be sent to those addresses.
"We don’t want to change the way it’s delivered or anything like that," Councilwoman Margaret Armenante said. "We just want to make sure they’re associated (with the national grid)."
Ms. Armenante, whose home and work location fall within the quarter-mile area, said she has had problems with mail delivery to her house for a long time. For example, she can have mail sent by Federal Express to her house but businesses that use the U.S. Postal Service to ship packages, such as Best Buy, can’t send items directly there.
"If I order something from Best Buy, they can’t deliver it to my office or to my home," Ms. Armenante said. "They don’t recognize that address."
The Borough Council must lobby the national Postal Service in Memphis, which is in charge of the grid. Ms. Armenante said she will write a letter in the coming weeks to discuss the issue.
"It’s not a local issue, and it’s not a regional issue," she said. "It’s a national issue."
Councilman Dan Zorovich tried sending three letters to street addresses for three establishments located within the quarter-mile zone in Allentown. Within two to three days, the Postal Service returned them to him. Mr. Zorovich will talk to Allentown Postmaster Joe Devonshire about the issue.
"I don’t think it’s something that can be easily resolved," he said.
Ms. Armenante said Allentown’s post office knows how to handle the situation, but mail gets lost when another post office gets the mail.
"Sometimes if Allentown can get a hold of it, then they’re pretty good," Ms. Armenante said. "If it’s someplace other than Allentown that’s doing the sorting, then it goes back to the sender."