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People getting new mailboxes in Kent discovered a good number of mailboxes might be installed backwards. (97.3 KIRO FM/Chris Sullivan)

Is your mailbox installed backwards?

BY Chris Sullivan  on May 16, 2012 @ 9:39 am (Updated: 8:33 am - 5/17/12 )

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People living on Kent's West Hill were tired of getting ripped off. Their mail was being stolen. Thieves were prowling open garages.

The police say the community was targeted because of the easy on-and-off access to I-5 and close proximity to Highways 516 and 167.

Dawn Banfield wanted to do something about it. "We just started looking for how you can stop it," Banfield said. "The vandal-proof mailboxes were the only option that we had."

Banfield went to the City of Kent to see if the neighborhood could get those large key-entry cluster boxes installed. The city agreed to match any money the neighborhood could raise in dollars and sweat to put the boxes in.

But as those boxes started being installed last year, curiosity put Barry Nelson in front of his computer. He wanted to check out the different sizes and specifications.

"I was seeing how big they are, how much they weigh, how many slots there are, and basically I noticed on their website postal regulations," he said.

And that's when he noticed the safety guidelines section which the U.S. Postal Service has for the installation of these Cluster Box Units or CBU's. "It spells it out very clearly in bold letters that these units had to be turned away from the street. The customer couldn't stand in the street accessing their mail."

All the boxes in the neighborhood were being put in with the slots facing the street which is the way most of them are installed everywhere in Washington, but it's also against the Postal Service's own regulations.

The CBU's are designed so mail carriers can drive up and deliver the mail without having to get out of their trucks. The older boxes have two sided access so customers don't have to stand in their street to get their mail, but the newer, more tamper-resistant boxes only open from one side.

Ernie Swanson with the USPS admitted "someone at some point assumed, I guess, that the proper way to do that was to put it facing the street for ease of access for our carriers as well as the customers."

Swanson said the Postal Service has been installing these boxes incorrectly for years.

"I have no idea how many we might be talking about," he said. "There undoubtedly are some out there, beside these ones in discussion, that were mounted contrary to our own regulations."

Swanson said no one had ever raised the safety concerns of having these boxes face the street until now.

So the national office has ordered the local USPS office to turn them around, at least in Kent, which Dawn Banfield said makes no sense. "Everybody else's mailboxes face the street for heaven's sake, and they have for years."

Banfield believes the switch will make it virtually impossible for people to get their mail. Turning some of the CBU's would make people walk on lawns or through bushes to get their mail, but Barry Nelson says all he's concerned about is safety. "The Post Office has now done the right thing, protected the public safety in the West Hill of Kent, and who knows maybe they'll start looking at all the other cities in the state of Washington and the nation to fix those."

If you're concerned about the safety of these boxes in your neighborhood, Ernie Swanson with USPS said it would look at them on a case-by-case basis.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (34)


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  • CH wrote...
    Cluster Box is a . . . .
    May 17, 2012 5:16 am
    Cluster F
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  • rbloeliger wrote...
    Backwards Mailboxes
    May 17, 2012 11:43 am
    Now that we have installed 28 new maiboxes how and where the post office directed us to, they're being turned so that the postman and the postal customers are being required, for their safety, to climb hillsides, stand in open drainage ditches, bushwack ornamentals, and walk in wet grass. I'm not physically challenged, but I do not think this is quite what the ADA had in mind. I had understood that when the postal regulations were written, the CBUs were differently configured for access and loading by the mail carriers. Is this a tempest in a teapot, or the case of a disgruntled neighbor who didn't get his way? Personally, I don't feel unsafe when I stand at a clear curbside to pickup my mail that I know will be there.
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  • hpygolkyone wrote...
    HAHAHAHAHA...........
    May 17, 2012 5:21 am
    Well that certainly made me laugh.

    I see this often......some college kid, fresh from the books, wants to make their impact on the world and they over-engineer something, or create so many layers of paperwork to install a simple design, that nobody can take the time to wade through all the nonsense.

    Thus, they just install it to what makes the most common sense...not the common sense of a 20-something college student.

    Just my two cents, but I think it would be a lot cheaper and faster to change the postal service regulations, than it would be to remount 5 billion mailboxes......no?

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  • ron prevost wrote...
    CH makes more sense that the USPS ?
    May 17, 2012 5:28 am
    Rural/street mail boxes have faced the street since - what - the 1880s ? .. No one ever worried about 'traffic safety' with groupings of 4, 5 6 or up to 30 individual boxes in a row facing the street. .. But if CBUs are clearly states to be faced 'away' from the street per USPS guidelines, why has the Post Office ITSELF ."..been installing these boxes incorrectly for years." ? .............. And we wonder why the PO looses money ?
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  • SONAR GOD wrote...
    To many rules
    May 17, 2012 6:28 am
    this rule probaly came when these boxes had a loading opening on the back that way they would be installed the way that made it easier on the postal carrier. not for safety but for efficency.
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  • drummerdog wrote...
    Oh, brother
    May 17, 2012 6:34 am
    These boxes are in my neighborhood. We don't have them yet, and I hope we never do. I bought a locking mailbox years ago...end of problem.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • DJFavorite wrote...
    This is ridiculous
    May 17, 2012 6:35 am
    As someone else said, what about all those rural mailboxes that are on the streets. We have those cluster boxes on some of our neighborhood streets. We have no sidewalks. So everyone has to walk on the street. Even those who don’t have the cluster boxes have the ‘old fashion’ mailboxes that are installed such that you have to be on the street to access them. Again, there’s no sidewalks. So if they ‘turned around those cluster boxes, everyone would have to walk on someone’s lawn/yard to get their mail. I say change the regulations to make sense!
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    more rediculous is that the carrier
    May 17, 2012 7:28 am
    would need to get OUT OF THE TRUCK to deliver - per regulations. Change the stupid rules.
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  • NWGUY wrote...
    Yes,
    May 17, 2012 8:47 am
    and they would trip on the curb,fall getting in or out, etc. having them sit in their drivers seat and put the mail in the slots keeps them from hurting themselves, and from having to enter and exit the vehicle all the time.
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  • eddiewhite wrote...
    Holy crap!...
    May 17, 2012 9:00 am
    mynw.com's lead story is about a set of mailboxes. Ground breaking journalism if you ask me. I'm enlightened
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • kata wrote...
    -- and with exclusive pictures of the offending mailboxes
    May 17, 2012 9:53 am
    *lol*
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Wearymom wrote...
    Too many govt regulations
    May 17, 2012 9:02 am
    I would almost bet that somewhere are regulations about the carriers getting out of their truck and the rules that apply. I would also bet that they contradict with this rule somehow. We have that style in my neighborhood. The next neighborhood over has the kind with the big door for the mail carrier on one side and the individual ones on the other. I like to pull my car up and get my mail without getting out and always felt sorry for that other neighborhood where they couldn't do that.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Steve Dallas wrote...
    Not clear who Barry Nelson is
    May 17, 2012 10:07 am
    But he's the one that prompted this whole thing by looking into this "law". Is he with the USPS, or a private citizen?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • newsguysully wrote...
    From the newsroom.
    May 17, 2012 10:30 am
    Steve. Barry is just a man who lives in the neighborhood. He does not work for USPS.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    Just because Barry Nelson is a smug on himself idiot does NOT mean he works for the government.
    May 17, 2012 11:03 am
    Even private citizens can cost the taxpayers millions if they really work at it.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Flygirl40o wrote...
    Annoying neighbor for 30 plus years!
    May 17, 2012 6:13 pm
    It's interesting to see this story. H as made it this far considering the way this all started. My parents have lived in the same cul de sac with Barry Nelson and have so since 1974. Barry was angry that they were putting in the cluster mail box and was determined to stop them from putting them in. The mailbox was first placed in the cul de sac centrally located and safe for all neighbors to access ther mail. Somehow in the middle of the night the mail box was removed from the ground. Hmmmmm. Barry kept his own mailbox ran around threating the neighbors with law suits and quoting the bible.. He went to the local post office and then the federal post office. So after all this he claims for the safety of the people he had the mailbox moved to the end of the street off the cul de sac on to the busiest street. Everyone now has to walk on the street to get there because the neighborhood has no sidewalks. Hmmm. Mind you he kept his beloved mailbox in front of his house! This is just another case of a guy that wanted his way no matter what. It's so wronge in so many ways it's not even funny. Such a waste of tax payers money. If you watch the live interview with him on q13 notice he says I have to stand in the street to get my mail.. Well sorry Barry you are a liar you don't use the cluster box you still have your mailbox in front of your house in which you stand in the street to collect your mail... So I ask you this if you are so afraid of someone getting hurt you should turn yours around as well.. Or maybe it's all about winning to him!!!!
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  • tdunlap104 wrote...
    Barry Nelson
    May 18, 2012 12:59 pm
    Mr. Nelson is a quack. The city of Kent installed the CBU on public property in front of his nieghbors house which was ok, but Mr. Nelson would loose the spot where he parks his car in the hopes that it gets hit by a soccer ball from one of the nieghbor's children and he could sew. Mr Nelson was initially ok with the installation and had signed documents along with all his nieghbors.
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  • MarinerDaddy wrote...
    You've got to be kidding me
    May 17, 2012 10:19 am
    Believe me, you don't want to have to walk through the dirt and mud in the back of the boxes to get your mail. NO, the boxes are not installed backwards. The regulation is backwards. CHANGE IT!!!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • tdunlap104 wrote...
    Old versa New CBUs.
    May 18, 2012 1:03 pm
    The regulations covering CBU installation were inacted during the time when these CBU's were rear accessed and front loaded by the carrier. Those specific CBU's were required to be facing a side walk because they were designed that way. The new CBU's are not they are accessed from only one side and the regulations were never changed. The USPS has aways been 10 years behind on updating anything.
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