Community Corner

Resident Complaints of Mail Delivery Prompt Council Action

U.S. Postal Service says route adjustments may be the reason for issues over the past year.

Ongoing complaints from north College Park residents claiming unreliable mail delivery from the U.S. Postal Service have driven the city council to request a meeting with a USPS representative. 

City Councilman (Dist. 1) drafted a letter outlining the complaints, including misdirected or lost mail, instances when outgoing mail remained in mailboxes for days without collection, and poor customer service at the post office at Baltimore Avenue and Hollywood Road.

“This letter comes out of a couple years of concerns that I’ve been hearing … about performance issues with this particular postal service,” Wojahn said at Tuesday’s Mayor and Council meeting before the council voted to approve the letter.

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“I can just attest to Mr. Wojahn’s concern,” said Stephen Brimer, a north College Park resident who was at the meeting. He said a rent check his parents tried to send to him was returned, noting that the destination residence was vacant.

“It definitely wasn’t vacant,” Brimer said.

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Officers of the North College Park Citizens Association said they’ve had association newsletters returned to them, noting a vacancy as the reason, when they’ve known the residence was not empty.

Betty Rodenhausen, also a north College Park resident, said the post office failed to follow her request to hold her incoming mail until she returned from vacation.

But it’s not all bad, she said.

“My postman that serves the 5200 block is outstanding,” she said, adding that he knocks on her door whenever he delivers her prescription or a check. 

“I really hate to criticize the post office when my postman is great,” Rodenhausen said.

According to an informal , 15.6 percent of 32 polltakers said they have few or no complaints of mail delivery or customer service in north College Park.

But 40.6 percent said they find mail delivery in north College Park to be very unreliable and/or customer service at the North College Park Post Office to be very poor. The remaining 43.8 percent said they’ve had some issues.

According to Laura Dvorak, a postal service spokeswoman, some of the may have resulted from two mail delivery route adjustments.

Though meant to improve efficiency, it could take time for mail carriers to get used to the new route, she said in an email.

“I noticed that in north College Park there are numbered streets, such as 48, that could be 48 Avenue, 48 Street, 48 Place, etc. This particular area had the heaviest route adjustment of all,” she said.

She said that a review over the past 30 days of deliveries did not point to trends of particular delivery errors, and during a “service talk” this Monday, all letter carriers were reminded of the importance of mail being delivered to the correct place the first time.

She also said information will be mailed Saturday to each resident explaining why there have been changes to the delivery routes. This will be the second time this information was sent, Dvorak said.


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