APPLETON (NBC 26) β Residents of Aurora Drive in Appleton face an unusual problem: they can't get their mail delivered to their homes. For nearly a year, 16 homeowners have been forced to drive to the post office and wait in line to collect their mail in person.
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"It's frustrating that we see the mail truck drive down the block out our back window and turn around," Emma Clancy said.
Since moving in nearly a year ago, no one on Aurora Drive has received mail from the U.S. Postal Service. The situation has created practical problems for residents trying to manage basic household needs.
"It's frustrating because the water bill only comes by mail, so we've almost been late because we didn't know it was there, we didn't get it," Kayla Zarins said.
The U.S. Postal Service says the neighborhood requires a centralized delivery box, called a cluster box unit. The city requires someone to pay for and maintain the box, usually done by the developer or the homeowners.
In this case, the plots for the houses were developed in 1996, before the requirement of a cluster box unit.
The houses on Aurora Drive were built recently, after the requirement for a cluster box, leading to confusion on who's responsibility the mailbox is.
"What the city needs is some legal entity, either the developer or an association to apply for the permit to get the mailboxes installed, someone needs to own and maintain them," Community Development Director, Kara Homan said.
The only other option would be having the postmaster make an exception, allowing mail to be delivered to each individual house. The city says they've made that request and were denied.
Other than the exception, some legal entity would need to be charge of the shared box, meaning homeowners may need to form a home owners association to pay and maintain the box.
That idea isn't popular among residents, who were told there was not going to be an HOA and that houses could have individual mailboxes.
"We put money down on this land knowing there wouldn't be an HOA, that was appealing to us, so for those terms to change it would be frustrating," Clancy said.
The confusion even led many households to buy their own mailboxes and have them installed, which didn't solve the problem. Mail still wouldn't be delivered and now many homes have taken their boxes down.
"I don't understand why the 16 homes here are being punished for a mistake, a mishap, a miscommunication, whatever you want to call it," Clancy said.
If, how and when the neighborhood will get a mailbox is still unknown. For now, residents will have to continue to drive to the post office to get their mail.
