In The Mail

Some residents of East Hampton and Hampton Bays are rightfully up in arms over the U.S. Postal Service’s recent move to eliminate drive-up mail receptacles, making it more difficult for elderly and mobility-limited people to drop off monthly bills and other correspondence.

The post office is claiming that there are safety concerns with the old-style receptacles, and also asserting that the mailboxes were underutilized — a position that the residents are disputing.

As many as 300 people in East Hampton have signed an online petition calling for the restoration of a bank of mailboxes on Methodist Lane that were removed. That’s hardly an insignificant number for a village like East Hampton.

The organizer of the petition, Susan McGraw-Keber, an Amagansett resident and East Hampton Town Trustee, said she was told by post office officials that a new mailbox is scheduled to be installed, but it will not be a drive-up mailbox; instead, it will require people to exit their vehicles and walk to the opposite side to deposit their mail. She seems to have been informed correctly: A new mailbox has since been installed, and while it does, in fact, face the street, it’s not a drive-up mailbox.

In Hampton Bays, a similar bank of mailboxes near the post office there was replaced with traditional “slot” mailboxes, causing consternation among residents — and, according to one witness, some remarkable calisthenics, as people awkwardly stretched out of their car windows trying, in vain, to reach the slot. Residents now must find a nearby parking space in an always overfilled lot and walk up to the mailboxes.

According to a spokesman for the Postal Service, many drive-up mailboxes are being replaced nationwide because of a rash of “fishing” incidents, in which people looking for mailed checks use string to dip into the boxes and retrieve mail that is not theirs. New boxes have different openings that make it more difficult to remove mail.

While the security of the mail is certainly important, this seems to be a case of the solution causing more harm than good. In a climate when the Postal Service has seen reduced use and staggering revenue losses, one would think the federal agency would be more responsive to the needs of its clients and do everything in its power to encourage Americans to use the service.

And in an unprecedented time that is sure to see a decisive presidential and congressional election decided by a colossal number of mail-in votes, one would think the agency would want to avoid any appearance that it somehow had a hand in affecting the election by making it harder for a citizen to cast a mail ballot.

The solution seems simple: Return the drive-in mailboxes to the spots where they have been utilized for decades until the Postal Service can go back to the drawing board and develop a new mailbox that is secure but also meets the needs of our most vulnerable citizens.