04-20-2013, 03:52 PM
In its entirety the passage actually reads:
c. The streets are paved or otherwise improved to permit the travel of Postal Service vehicles at all times, without damage or delay.
HPP's roads meet that criteria, although the one about posted house numbers might be an issue for all of Hawaii Island.
Millions of Americans who live on rural gravel roads get their mail delivered to mail boxes at the end of their driveway, including my Dad who lives somewhere that can have 2 feet of snow on top of ice overnight. His mail is delivered by regular mail carriers, not subcontractors either, and his area has a far lower density of population than HPP too. His place is the smallest on his road at 40 acres, so people are very spread out there compared to HPP.
According to the US Census there were 4,526 households in HPP in 2010, if those households all picked up their mail in Kea'au at a low rate of only 2 times a week that would be over 9000 additional trips to Kea'au. Only 10% of the population is at the retirement age of 65 or over, so most of those trips to get mail would happen during peak commute hours. There is no way the current PO could handle that traffic, in fact there is no commercial building in Kea'au that is set up for that kind of traffic except for in Shipman Industrial Park.
Forcing almost 5,000 households to get their mail by general delivery isn't going to happen either, at twice a week spread out over the 40 hours the PO is open, that would be a rate of 225 customers per hour. Does anyone think any combination of the Kea'au and Pahoa POs can handle that kind of walk in business? Could any current commercial business handle it either? If you do the math at only 3 minutes to serve each customer it would take 10 people to handle the general delivery mail, and that is assuming people come get their mail at an even rate all day, which they wouldn't.
I think this whole thing is idle speculation. It makes sense that the post office doesn't like dealing with vandalized cluster boxes, but they are in no way set up to handle getting mail to the citizens of HPP any other way, and I am sure they know it. In the absence of any direct communication from the Postal Service I am going to assume that this is another case of the coconut wireless taking a baseless rumor and running with it, although out of curiosity I may just call the Kea'au postmaster and ask for verification or denial of these rumors. My husband had a long conversation with him on another matter recently in which there were many openings to say something about any proposed changes and he didn't say a word.
Carol
c. The streets are paved or otherwise improved to permit the travel of Postal Service vehicles at all times, without damage or delay.
HPP's roads meet that criteria, although the one about posted house numbers might be an issue for all of Hawaii Island.
Millions of Americans who live on rural gravel roads get their mail delivered to mail boxes at the end of their driveway, including my Dad who lives somewhere that can have 2 feet of snow on top of ice overnight. His mail is delivered by regular mail carriers, not subcontractors either, and his area has a far lower density of population than HPP too. His place is the smallest on his road at 40 acres, so people are very spread out there compared to HPP.
According to the US Census there were 4,526 households in HPP in 2010, if those households all picked up their mail in Kea'au at a low rate of only 2 times a week that would be over 9000 additional trips to Kea'au. Only 10% of the population is at the retirement age of 65 or over, so most of those trips to get mail would happen during peak commute hours. There is no way the current PO could handle that traffic, in fact there is no commercial building in Kea'au that is set up for that kind of traffic except for in Shipman Industrial Park.
Forcing almost 5,000 households to get their mail by general delivery isn't going to happen either, at twice a week spread out over the 40 hours the PO is open, that would be a rate of 225 customers per hour. Does anyone think any combination of the Kea'au and Pahoa POs can handle that kind of walk in business? Could any current commercial business handle it either? If you do the math at only 3 minutes to serve each customer it would take 10 people to handle the general delivery mail, and that is assuming people come get their mail at an even rate all day, which they wouldn't.
I think this whole thing is idle speculation. It makes sense that the post office doesn't like dealing with vandalized cluster boxes, but they are in no way set up to handle getting mail to the citizens of HPP any other way, and I am sure they know it. In the absence of any direct communication from the Postal Service I am going to assume that this is another case of the coconut wireless taking a baseless rumor and running with it, although out of curiosity I may just call the Kea'au postmaster and ask for verification or denial of these rumors. My husband had a long conversation with him on another matter recently in which there were many openings to say something about any proposed changes and he didn't say a word.
Carol
Carol
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
Every time you feel yourself getting pulled into other people's nonsense, repeat these words: Not my circus, not my monkeys.
Polish Proverb
was an easy fix but kinda frustrated to see your brand new mailbox laying on the ground with a few dents in it. I hope it put some nice scrapes on her truck.