Chesterfield residents to be surveyed on ZIP code change

The U. S. Postal Service will conduct a survey designed to tell it whether Chesterfield Township residents want a unified postal address.

By: Scott Morgan
   CHESTERFIELD — One of the issues facing rural towns in northern Burlington County is the array of postal addresses. Residents who live in Chesterfield alone could have their addresses listed as Trenton, Yardville, Wrightstown, Columbus, Allentown or Bordentown — and those all carry different ZIP codes.
   But this might be about to change.
   Between May 7 and May 15, the Crosswicks branch of the U. S. Postal Service will conduct a survey designed to tell it whether township residents want a unified postal address.
   If the answer is yes, all township residents, no matter which designation or ZIP code they have now, would receive mail at Chesterfield, 08515, the actual Crosswicks ZIP code. Residents of the Village of Crosswicks could continue getting their mail at Crosswicks, 08515 if they want to, township officials said.
   The plan, as outlined by Vince Longano, growth manager for the Central New Jersey District of the U. S. Postal Service, during the April 28 Township Committee meeting, is a simple one — his office will mail surveys to all 728 residences and businesses in the township on May 7.
   Responders will have until May 15 to say whether they like the idea of a single mailing address.
   Mr. Longano said he would need to get back 85 percent (or 619) of the surveys, and of those received, 75 percent (or 465) must say yes. If those criteria are not met, Mr. Longano said, "this goes away for another 10 years."
   It has been 10 years since Chesterfield last sought to consolidate its postal service. In 1995, the problem came down to lack of a new facility that Crosswicks postal employees thought they would be getting, and in the end, "that just didn’t pan out," said Crosswicks Postmaster James Puvel.
   Should the plan go through this time, residents and merchants will have a one-year grace period that will allow them to continue receiving mail at their current addresses, Mr. Longano said.
   Township officials say the consolidated postal address would save a lot of headaches, namely in voter registration, marriage licenses and other legal filings that, depending on the address, could send paperwork to Mansfield (which also uses the Columbus address) or Hamilton (which also uses Yardville), or any of the other designations township residents use.
   A prime example, officials said, is the Old York Country Club, which hosts a lot of weddings and has a Columbus mailing address.
   Ed Eget, owner of the country club, said he is in favor of the consolidated address because he is tired of having to explain that his business is in Chesterfield, not Mansfield or Springfield.
   Sykesville Road farmer Arlene Bibus also said she supports the consolidation, as her address is Wrightstown. Often, she said, trucks trying to find her farm end up in the Borough of Wrightstown near the military bases, causing a lot of wasted driving.
   Mayor Larry Durr said, "I feel this will be a benefit to a lot of people." Not only will it make Chesterfield easy to find, it will help the township get emergency fire subsidies, which now require officials to do a lot of work to prove a township location is actually in Chesterfield.
   Besides that, he said, it would really help the township government’s image.
   "The township (municipal building) doesn’t have a Chesterfield address," Mayor Durr said. "We have a Trenton post office. It makes no sense for the municipal government to be associated with Trenton."