Housing Tenants Could Lose Individual Mail Delivery

Residents of 2 housing developments in Beaver County are fighting a plan by the local postmaster to halt door-to-door delivery. Carl DeChellis, the director of the Beaver County Housing Authority, says he received a letter from the postmaster in late September saying there were concerns about mail carrier safety, so the postmaster wanted to mandate all mailboxes be placed in a central location at the Crestview Village and Economy Village by November 13...

"We took objection to that. This development covers a 4 block area and there would be a lot of elderly, disabled and a lot of young people families who would have to bundle up their kids and walk to get their mail everyday. So we ask the post office to reconsider that."

DeChellis said he received a follow up letter from the postmaster indicating he still intends to go through with the central mail delivery. DeChellis says there are about 300 residents in the 181 apartments in the housing developments.

He says he knows of no incidents in which carriers have been harmed......"For the last 15 years, the authority has paid various municipalities to patrol the housing developments. In the past 2 years, the Borough of Ambridge and the authority have been unable to negotiate a contract acceptable to the borough. Residents have requested police protection. The postmaster may have taken that to think we have an unsafe situation."

DeChellis says the housing developments have had door to door mail delivery for 60 years.