Hempfield resident stymied in effort to have mailbox moved

Danielle Guenther has been trying for years to get her mailbox moved to what she considers a safer location outside her Hempfield home.

Now, she has to walk across busy North Greengate Road, near the crest of a hill, to pick up her mail. Guenther said she’s been back and forth with the Jeannette post office for eight years with no solution.

“It’s dangerous, people come flying down over that hill,” she said. “They (postal service) deny me every single time.”

Guenther bought the property a couple years ago, but she was well-acquainted with it — it’s her childhood home, nestled between routes 130 and 30 and close to Greensburg Country Club.

U.S. Postal Service spokesperson Mark Lawrence said a customer who wants to put up a new mailbox or move the location of their current mailbox has to get permission to do so from their local postmaster. Guenther has a Jeannette ZIP code.

“The local postmaster will continue to work together with the customer to find a viable solution on the matter,” Lawrence said.

They previously had agreed on a new location on the same side of North Greengate Road as Guenther’s house, but property ownership issues prevented that from happening, both Lawrence and Guenther said. Her home is on the outside edge of Fairway Estates.

There are several components of decisions related to mailbox placement, Lawrence said.

“Factors considered in the placement of a new mailbox include the carrier’s existing line of travel, the efficiency of delivering mail to the new location and whether mail can safely be delivered to the new location,” he said.