Agenda - Public Works Committee - 01/17/2012

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Public Works Committee 5. 6. Meeting Date: 01/17/2012 By: Brian Olson, Engineering/Public Works Title: Consider request for moving mailboxes on Dysprosium Street Background: At the Mayor's Town Hall meeting on Monday, January 9, a resident that lived on the west side of Dysprosium Street requested consideration of moving the mailboxes that are currently placed on the east side of the road to the west side of the road. As you recall, Dysprosium was reconstructed last year and the project inspection team worked with the postal carrier to ask him where he wanted the mailboxes reinstalled. The design and ultimate reconstruction of the road introduced parking bays on the west side of the road and restricted parking on the ease side of the road. There are currently about 10 mailboxes on the west side of the road north of 142nd Avenue and about 45 mailboxes on the east side of the road south of 142nd Avenue NW. Staff has contacted the Postmaster and discussed the proposal to move the mailboxes onto the west side of the road and he initially had a number of concerns: • Is the neighborhood in support of this change? Whereas, there certainly will be some that will perceive this change as a benefit because they will not have to cross Dysprosium to get their mail, there will be others that will have to cross Dysprosium to get their mail whereas they haven't had to in the past. There are 32 properties that are on the west side of Dysposium with their existing mailboxes on the east side that would probably perceive this as a benefit. There are 16 — 18 properties on the east side that would perceive this change as a negative. • The mail carrier routes are not conducive to this change. Currently the mail carrier travels on the east side of the road northbound the entire stretch of Dysprosium, delivers to the 2 apartment building on the north side of Dysprosium and then heads southbound to deliver to the property owners on the west side of the road and then turns right or westbound into the neighborhood on 142nd. He never travels southbound south of 142nd on Dysprosium. (see attached map) • Parking lanes create a problem for mail delivery. If there is a car parked in the parking node in front of a mailbox, the mail carrier will not deliver the mail. Staff has asked the Postmaster to look into revising his route and he said that he would talk to his delivery person and get back to us. I hope to have an answer by the time the this item gets before the Public Works Committee. Notification: None at this time Observations: The purpose of this case is gather input from the Public Works Committee and ultimately the full City council on how to handle this request. If there is interest in pursuing moving the mailboxes to the west side of the road upon receiving approval from the Postmaster, the prudent thing to do is notify the residents on both sides of the road so that they can express their concerns. The intent is to handle the moving of the mailboxes and property notification with Staff resources.