Deltona residents on main roads must use cluster mailboxes

By Al Everson
BEACON STAFF WRITER

posted Apr 28, 2009 - 1:15:13pm

Residents along Deltona's main roads will soon have to get their mail from cluster mailboxes instead of their own single mailbox.

With the backing of the U.S. Postal Service, the City Commission will require Deltonans along the

busiest roads and streets to use community mailboxes. City planners and Deltona leaders claim there are many advantages.

"This is a very good project for us," Deltona Pines Postmaster Jeff Straker said.

The community mailboxes are supposed to enhance traffic safety, while improving mail security and helping the post office save money on gasoline.

Deltona officials also think they look better than rows of individual mailboxes.

Under the new ordinance, mailboxes and newspaper-delivery boxes will be prohibited in the rights of way of Deltona's main thoroughfares: Fort Smith, Normandy, Howland, Saxon, Providence and Deltona boulevards.

Some postal patrons are already getting their mail in cluster boxes.

"Fort Smith Boulevard is being widened, and those mailboxes have already been removed," Deltona Planning Manager Tom Burbank said.

Regular mailboxes will still be allowed in front of homes along neighborhood streets.

The shift from conventional mailboxes to community mailboxes affects approximately 2,200 postal customers.

The U.S. Postal Service will install the community mailboxes at no cost to the residents. Each mailbox will be lockable, and postal patrons will be given keys. Burbank could not say exactly when community mailboxes will be installed along the roads other than Fort Smith Boulevard.

Mayor Dennis Mulder suggested the U.S. Postal Service keep residents along the affected roads informed.

"We don't want our residents to be blindsided," Mulder said.

— al@beacononlinenews.com

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