Cannon Beach City Council to discuss similar issuesGearhart has won deliverance from recently imposed post office box fees that had generated rancor in town, according to U.S. Postal Service officials.

Upset Cannon Beach residents seek to address similar fee issues at the regular meeting of their city council Tuesday.

David Ellis, the Portland-based manager of post office operations including the North Coast, attended a Gearhart City Council meeting March 5 to respond to questions. Councilors and residents voiced their dismay about the fact that effective Feb. 1, box holders were required to pay a fee – even though home mail delivery is not available to all of them.

Where previously boxes had been free to those who did not have home mailboxes – primarily residents north of Pacific Way – the annual fee for a small box became $38. Medium and large boxes suddenly cost $68 and $126, respectively.

Ellis told councilors he had no intention of shutting the community post office, which many residents view as a social nerve center of town as well as a place to pick up the mail. But he said in the past, the rules about fees were improperly applied.

He sought help from the councilors in determining what the majority of residents desired, noting a petition by more than 100 residents who indicated they favored post office boxes to the addition of delivery routes.

Seeking to end the discrepancy of forms of mail delivery in different parts of town, councilors had moved “to direct the Postal Service to make a decision regarding street delivery to all residents of Gearhart.” By that motion, the councilors indicated they were open to street delivery and would allow residents the option of applying to the U.S. Postal Service for it.

“As a result of the council meeting, the discussions that took place, and the action taken by the city council, there is now clarity regarding mail service in Gearhart,” Ellis wrote in a March 20 letter to Mayor Kent Smith. Consequently, he added, “I have directed the Officer-in-Charge in Seaside, James W. Wills, to discontinue the collection of fees for those individuals who would otherwise qualify for ‘no fee’ post office boxes.”

“The fees have been discontinued,” City Administrator Dennis McNally said Wednesday. “It’s less expensive for them to have free post office boxes, I think, than it would be to come in here and do a route.”

The small-town post office listed 684 boxes in 1995, when it moved to its present location from a previous spot across Pacific Way.

McNally noted that as he understood the decision, residents will be eligible for no-fee boxes only if they do not already receive home delivery of mail. Many residents south of Pacific Way opt to pay for a post office box.

Pacific divided

Reasons for the lack of street delivery on the north side of town are unclear, despite research of city council minutes into the 1940s.

The delivery issues have been coupled with frustration that Gearhart and Seaside share a ZIP code of 97138, sometimes resulting in confusion and delays among those sending mail to Gearhart, residents said. The Gearhart office is run by a contractor under the supervision of the post office in Seaside.

Long-time Gearhart resident Jack Keeler has said a dispute nearly 50 years ago among local postmasters about Gearhart stamps being mailed from Seaside set the stage for the elimination of Gearhart’s own ZIP code.

In a separate letter responding to McNally, also dated March 20, Ellis said the assignment of ZIP codes is not within his authority. But he said he would convey the city’s request for an independent code to Robert Ayres, a coordinator for the regional district, and that the Postal Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C., would have final approval.

McNally said months may pass before answers are known on the ZIP code issue, and in the larger scheme of things it probably will not be a high priority.

“It’s a long process, and you’re dealing with federal bureaucracy,” he said. “(But) I’m hoping to hear from Mr. Ayres.”

Cannon loaded

Meanwhile, Cannon Beach residents have encouraged those concerned about no-fee mail delivery to attend Tuesday’s council meeting.

To provide the public with an opportunity to speak to the issue, resident T.R. Factor urged people to e-mail or write questions and comments to the city council and take them to Cannon Beach City Hall, 163 E. Gower St., in the days prior to the meeting.

Residents Rex and Diane Amos also have been instrumental in questioning the legitimacy of fees implemented late last year for post office boxes in Cannon Beach. They and Factor have said the concern is largely about the principle of fairly interpreting the regulations as much as the amount of the annual fees, which in Cannon Beach are $24 for a small box.

“I entered this fray with both guns blazing in mid-December to call attention to what I saw as a clear manipulation of U.S. (Postal Service) regulations,” Factor wrote in a recent letter to the city council. “To that end I have been communicating with Sen. Ron Wyden and (U.S. Rep.) David Wu.”

Representatives of those officials are expected to attend Tuesday, Factor said.

The situation in Cannon Beach and neighboring Tolovana Park and Arch Cape is not identical to Gearhart, and much of the deliberation about fees in Cannon Beach since last year has stemmed from concerns about whether collection box units can be placed on curbs.

If postal officials were to establish street delivery in Cannon Beach, it would be to clustered boxes along the carrier’s line of travel. Across the country, new delivery is no longer established directly to customers’ doors.

City officials have repeatedly said that the city has no ordinance specifically prohibiting mailboxes on curbs, although some locations would need city review. Consequently, residents say they should have street delivery or no-fee boxes.

“The residents of Cannon Beach are ‘eligible for home delivery’ because we have no ordinance prohibiting it,” Factor wrote. “Through no fault of the citizens and government of Cannon Beach, the (postal service) is denying us our rightful no-fee post office boxes with every subterfuge they can conceive.”