Edmonds gets its drive-up postal drop box back

Published 1:30 am Sunday, September 18, 2016

EDMONDS — Don’t mess with tradition in this city.

Customers were happy when a new downtown post office opened in July. It’s just around the corner from the former post office on Main Street, which opened in 1960.

But something was missing at the new location — a drive-up drop box. “There was no place to shift it to on Second Avenue,” said Todd Merriman, Edmonds postmaster.

The change wasn’t greeted with equanimity.

“They took the mailbox out about a month ago,” City Councilman Dave Teitzel said. “That came as a surprise to many Edmonds residents.”

Teitzel said he heard from about 30 people.

“The public is very aware of it and very upset when the mailbox disappeared,” he said.

There was no notice. “Just one day it wasn’t there,” he said.

Teitzel, who has lived in the city since 1987, said he understood the concern. “I’ve used that mailbox drop box for many years,” he said. “It’s very clear it was an amenity we needed here in the downtown Edmonds area.”

The next closest drive-up drop boxes were in Perrinville and Lynnwood.

The problem was finding a new spot for a drop box. They needed to find a place on a one-way street — something Edmonds doesn’t have many of — so mail could be dropped off from the driver’s side of a car.

Teitzel said they came to the conclusion that a solution wasn’t that far off, adding it near the Edmonds Library book drop on Dayton Street.

He met with Merriman and Richard Suico, manager of the Edmonds Library. “I would think we share many of the same customers,” Suico said. “Moms and babies want to drop off mail or library books.” There’s also a lot of older adults in Edmonds, making it harder for them to travel to more distant drop boxes, he said.

The library had to shift some of the pickup times for books at its drop box, a relatively minor change for the goodwill it will generate, Suico said.

The new post office drop box opened Wednesday . Teitzel said he drove by to check it out.

“It’s something people appreciate and use often,” Teitzel said. “It’s created goodwill for the post office and I’m just pleased we got it done.”

Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486; salyer@heraldnet.com.