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Postmaster vows to replace collection boxes
By Mike Perry/ mikeperry@alpineavalanche.com
In case you haven’t noticed already, Alpine no longer has any of those big blue U.S. Postal Service drop-off boxes.
Up until the end of October, Alpine had drop boxes at two locations:
Downtown on West Avenue E between 5th and 6th streets (in the general vicinity of TransPecos Bank and Parsons Real Estate.
At the Post Office itself.
On Oct. 31, Alpine Police Department reports indicate, the boxes on West Avenue E were damaged, possibly by a vehicle hitting them.
Then, on Nov. 28, the collection box in front of the post office was knocked over, causing damage.
Police have no information as to who caused the damage to either site, and it’s unclear as to whether the incidents were accidents or criminal mischief. Criminal mischief cases are up slightly in Alpine in 2008. Through the last week of 2008, we’ve had 78 cases, which compares to 72 cases in 2007, according to Alpine Police Department statistics.
As a result of the damage, all remote collection boxes have been removed.
Alpine Postmaster John Hosey says the local post office does not currently have money in its budget to repair or replace the boxes.
Hosey confirmed Monday that his budget from the U.S. Postal Service does not contain money to repair or replace the damaged boxes, but that he “intends to find some way to do so.” Actually, he said, replacing the boxes seems the only option considering the amount of damage incurred.
New boxes cost about $5,000 each. With five boxes destroyed by accidents or vandals, replacing all of them with new boxes would cost approximately $25,000.
Hosey said he intends to find some way to find replacements, even if he has to track down used boxes, which would probably cost a small fraction of anything new. He’s hoping, realistically, to have at least one back in place at the downtown location by spring.
Hosey would also like to find a way to put up a barricade that would ensure that the boxes are not accidently sideswiped by cars or trucks.
The three downtown boxes, he said, were the result of a “hit-and-run,” he said. “I’m not sure what it was, but I suspect it was a large trailer.”
The collection boxes mean a lot to certain groups of Alpine citizens.
In December, Shelby Ellis of Alpine wrote area newspapers asking us to publish a letter he had written to the U.S. Department of Justice. That letter can be found on page A4.
In asking us to publish the letter, Ellis said, “For the disabled and elderly of our community [the lack of collection boxes] is a burden.
“Several of the elderly and disabled of the community ask if I would champion the cause of getting some drop boxes installed outside the Post Office and possibly get the doors replaced with automatic doors.
“I began that process by speaking with our local postmaster [John Hosey],” Ellis said. “[Hosey] informed me that the boxes that were destroyed by acts of vandalism had to be replaced out of his local budget and there were no funds available. … I then contacted all of our U.S. senators and congressmen and also our state representatives.”
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