Sai Reddy and Lucille Alouah: Operation Save Our Mailbox.
Lucille Alouah believes a neighborhood should have a library and an accessible postal mailbox — and she’s fighting to keep both in her pocket of Westville.
Alouah, 74, who has lived in Westville for 25 years, created a petition against the planned removal of a United States Postal Service (USPS) collection box at the corner of Alden Avenue and West Elm Street.
This is the second petition Alouah put together for the neighborhood’s seniors and residents living with disabilities. The first time petition was against a proposed city budget plan Mayor Elicker submitted last year that putatively included closing the Mitchell Branch library. (The library remains open.)
Two weeks ago a neighbor asked Alouah to put together the second petition on behalf of neighbors against the removal of the mail collector after signage posted on the box. The notice states that the box will be removed April 12. The next nearest mailbox is three blocks away outside the Fountain Street post office.
“We note that the proposed alternate location at the Westville Post Office is too far away for some or our elderly and disabled neighbors to walk and that the location has inadequate parking, causing driving customers to park on-street at Alden and Fountain. This often requires parking across the street and crossing at a busy intersection. We ask that you please reconsider your decision to remove our corner mailbox,” the petition reads.
Signage on Alden Avenue mailbox.
A change in people’s habits led to the mailbox’s fate, which was determined by a review by the USPS, according to USPS spokesperson Amy N. Gibbs. She said the review “measures the number of envelopes or density of mail in blue collection boxes and determines cost-effectiveness based on mail volume.” The review deemed the box “low-density.”
“The drastic change in Americans’ mailing habits has shifted the amount of blue collection boxes needed and has prompted the Postal Service to be more strategic in its placement of these boxes across the country,” Gibbs stated in an email message.
“Customers are encouraged to mail letters from the collection box located outside the Westville Post Office [at 95 Fountain] or inside the lobby. Customers can also hand outgoing mail to postal letter carriers.”
Alouah found out about the box removal from the employees of Westville Quality Market across the street from her home. She has since talked with neighbors who, unlike her don’t drive and therefore depend on the nearby box.
On regular trips to the mailbox often to send out bills and cards to friends and family, Alouah has developed a friendship with people who run the market, which opens onto the sidewalk where the mailbox stands.
“People rely on this mailbox,” she said.
As of Wednesday at noon the petition had nine full pages of signatures from neighbors and visitors of the store.
Alouah, who currently works as a substitute school nurse in Woodbridge and a day nurse two days a week, said she wants to look out for her neighbors who are concerned about the removal. She also wants to keep the area livable for those that don’t drive cars, she said.
She described a good neighborhood as having access to everyday resources like accessible bus stops, a church, a convenience store, a hairdresser, and a library.
As customers walked in and out of the Westville Quality Market Thursday, Alouah asked them, “Are you sure you signed that petition?”
Store clerk and University of New Haven (UNH) student Sai Reddy, 24, said he sees people use the mailbox throughout his shifts. While checking customers out, Reddy said, he suggest they read about the petition.
“The parking here is easy, but over there they say it’s not quick or easy,” Reddy said.
Alder Adam Marchand, who lives around the block, learned of the petition while picking up milk at the store. He has since sent a notice through his neighborhood email list asking for people’s opinions. He said he has received a few responses from residents who described the mailbox as “well used” and accessible to seniors and individuals with disabilities.
“We would like to see if it can be kept,” Marchand said. “Otherwise folks would have to go further, and that’d be a real inconvenience for some.”
