It’s a mail-strom!
A Sheepshead Bay resident says that local mail carriers have been instructed not to trudge up the steps of the many row houses throughout the neighborhood — a shocking allegation that strikes at the core of a mailman’s solemn duty to swiftly complete his appointed rounds.
“[Letter carriers] admitted to me that they were told not to climb stairs anymore in our area’s two-family row houses!” said Steve Barrison, president of the Bay Improvement Group, a civic organization. “I used to always get a big stack of mail everyday. Then my bank statement [and phone bill] didn’t come! Soon, I found out the same thing was happening to my parents and neighbors!”
He added that both the bank and the phone company knew about the mail issues in Sheepshead Bay as well.
“I said I hadn’t gotten my bills, the [customer service workers] said, ‘oh, do you live in Sheepshead Bay? A lot of people aren’t getting their mail there,’” Barrison said.
Most disconcerting of all, Barrison took it upon himself to ask three mail carriers around the neighborhood what was going on, and they claimed they were instructed not to climb the stairs of the many row houses around Sheepshead Bay.
A spokeswoman for the United States Postal Service, Darleen Reid, said the post office serving the area — commonly known as the Bay Station — had not received any complaints about mail service recently.
“At no time have postal officials instructed letter carriers in the Sheepshead Bay Area not to climb stairs to complete mail delivery,” Reid added.
The chairwoman of Community Board 15, Theresa Schavo, said she had also not heard of any mail problems connected related to the post office at E. 18th Street and Jerome Avenue.
But Barrison says his organization has received more complaints about mail service in the last few months than it has in the last 20 years combined. He cited e-mails he’d received — but claimed the writers of the e-mail wished to remain anonymous for fear of retribution from disgruntled carriers who would perhaps bring the mail even less.
“There are [times] when people get nothing in the mail several days a week!” said Barrison. “This is a disgrace. The mail being lost, thrown out or not delivered is unacceptable.”
