News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
A new United States Postal Service policy requires all new subdivisions to have cluster box units (CBU) for mail delivery.
USPS representative Sandy Alsman said the change comes as expenses continue to rise and mail delivery becomes less popular.
“We have to look at our expenses not this year, but 50 or 60 years from now,” Alsman said. “That’s the reason we are pushing this change. First-class mail volume has dropped, so it’s a parcel delivery service that we are focused on now. First-class will continue to decline because of that.”
The average yearly price to deliver curbside mail to each home is $286, while CBU’s amount to $204. Alsman estimates that the USPC would save $10,000 per 180 homes by requiring more cluster box units.
Alsman notified Putnam County officials about the change during a Regional Planning Commission Meeting last week. The commission took no action, but Putnam County Planning Director Kevin Rush said he would be notifying developers about the changes.
Rush said he had a number of concerns about the new rule.
“We only have subdivision regulations, we don’t have zoning,” Rush said. “I’m not sure how you get around the taking issue, because you’re taking part of the developers property and requiring it for these CBU’s. That makes it more costly to develop. The other big issue is maintenance and replacement of these units.”
Replacing a damaged CBU unit would be the responsibility of each homeowner. Rush said that process could become tricky as Putnam County does not require a homeowners association.
“What do those residents do about the replacement of that unit? It would be on them because the postal service isn’t going to put it back up,” Rush said. “These CBU’s are thousands of dollars that you may or may not be able to recover from the other owners of that subdivision.”
New subdivisions without CBU’s will not receive mail, according to Alsman.
