Lonsdale mailbox move ends in frustration

After having their mailboxes cemented in front of their homes for more than 10 years, some residents in Lonsdale were recently told they had to move their mail boxes or face non-delivery of their mail.

Confusion began on June 26 when certain Lonsdale residents received letters from their postmaster, Modesty Montemayor, who sent a letter to homeowners telling them they needed to move their mailboxes.

Only homeowners in four cul-de-sacs and one dead end street received the order. When asked, the reason Montemayor has told residents was due to the inability to deliver mail during the winter.

The work orders indicated that homeowners had until Saturday, July 6, to comply. If they didn’t, they were told they would have their mail stopped, and possibly returned to sender.

In some cases, the property owners whose land included the public easement that would receive the mailboxes, did not receive any notice. I

n a short phone conversation on Tuesday, July 17, Montemayor said that all of the affected homeowners have moved their mailboxes. However, Montemayor refused to answer any more questions on the subject. When asked if the mailbox move applied to all cul-desacs in Lonsdale, the postmaster refused to answer.

“I’m not going to answer any more questions. We have a publicist who does that. His name is Peter Nowacki. I’m not going to give you any more information.”

When asked if she had worked with the city on determining where to tell the homeowners to move the mailboxes, Montemayor did not answer, saying that she would have Nowacki call the newspaper.

Nowacki returned a call, and said 16 Lonsdale customers were affected. However, as of presstime, 15 had moved their mailboxes. One homeowner who was on vacation had not, he said.

Nowacki concurred with Montemayor’s reason for the move, and added that it was his understanding the local post office had worked with the city of Lonsdale to determine where the mailboxes would be placed that would be safe for both the carriers and the city plows, “to determine area that made the best sense.”

Nowacki said he didn’t know if all of the residents in the city’s other cul-de-sacs would be required to make the same mailbox move.

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