Angry Residents Call For Return Of Drive-Up Mailboxes In East Hampton

An online petition is calling for the East Hampton Postmaster to return a bank of drive-up mailboxes that long stood on Methodist Lane in East Hampton Village for the sake of senior citizens and those with limited mobility.

The petition was begun this week by Susan McGraw-Keber, an Amagansett resident and East Hampton Town Trustee, who said she has also spoken with United States Postal Service officials about the boxes and was told they were removed for lack of use.

“The stories vary — that they were removed for the construction project, that they were removed because they weren’t being used — but, of course, they couldn’t be used for many months because of the construction project, which seems to be their excuse,” Mr. McGraw-Keber said after speaking with a USPS consumer affairs representative, Francine Segarra. “But I’ve spoken to postal workers who had that route and they said they were always filled. There were three boxes because that’s how much traffic was there.”

Ms. McGraw-Keber said that after her prodding, Ms. Segarra told her just this week that the USPS would put a new box on Methodist Lane but that the box would not be the traditional drive-up type.

Instead, the box will be a newer, more secure box that would not face the roadway but would require a person to exit their car and walk to the opposite side of the box to deposit letters. She said she was also told the boxes would be monitored for use and would be removed if they did not attract sufficient traffic.

Ms. Segarra did not return a call seeking comment from The Press, but a USPS public affairs spokesman, Xavier Hernandez, said that the USPS has “evaluated” the request that the drive-up boxes be replaced and will be placing “the best anti-fishing collection box available” at the same site.

Residents of Hampton Bays have also lamented that a drive-up box there has been removed.

Drive-up mailboxes have been removed nationwide after a rash of “fishing” incidents whereby mail was reportedly being stolen from inside the boxes using a string fed into the box to lift out letters in search of checks that could be altered and cashed fraudulently. The drive-up boxes were particularly vulnerable.

Standard collection boxes have been redesigned with narrower slots and interior obstacles to prevent such pilfering and some drive-up boxes have been retrofitted with security doors. Mr. Hernandez would not say if new drive-up boxes were being specifically developed and would be available.

Meanwhile, Ms. McGraw-Keber’s petition has garnered more than 300 signatures and waves of comments begging for a drive-up option that supporters say the USPS is underestimating the importance of to senior citizens in East Hampton, where parking near the post office is limited and lines are often long and that many people in the region do not have home delivery.

“A lot of people have always used them, so we could avoid the horrible parking issues at the post office,” wrote Alan Court on the petition’s Change.org page. “Taking them away causes unneeded hardship to residents and will force many ‘at risk’ seniors and others to go into the post office when we would prefer not to. This was a capricious act that happened with no feedback from our community.”