D. Update on Postal Service Delivery Issues
CITY OF
CHANHASSEN
7700 Market Boulevard
PO Box 147
Chanhassen, MN 55317
Administration
Phone 952.227.1100
Fax 952.227.1110
Building Inspections
Phone 952.227.1180
Fax 952.2271190
Engineering
Phone 952.227.1160
Fax 952.2271170
Finance
Phone 952.2271140
Fax 952.227.1110
Park & Recreation
Phone 952.2271120
Fax 952.2271110
Recreation Center
2310 Coulter Boulevard
Phone 952.227.1400
Fax 952.2271404
Planning &
Natural Resources
Phone 952.227.1130
Fax 952.227.1110
Public Works
1591 Park Road
Phone 952.227.1300
Fax 952.227.1310
Senior Center
Phone 952.2271125
Fax 952.227.1110
Web Site
www.ci.chanhassen.mn.us
D
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Todd Gerhardt, City Manager
FROM:
Justin Miller, Assistant City Managers>>-
~
DATE:
July 1, 2005
RE:
Update of Postal Service Delivery Issues
BACKGROUND
One of the issues addressed in this year's strategic plan is the status of postal
delivery within the City of Chanhassen. There are two pieces to this issue - one
being downtown mail delivery and the other being sporadic delivery to parts of
Chanhassen that have non-Chanhassen mailing addresses.
Downtown Mail Deli very
Currently, the City of Chanhassen is classified as a "rural" mail system by the
United States Post Office. This designation means that if a business is less than '12
mile from the downtown post office, they cannot receive door-to-door mail
delivery. Instead, they must rent a post office box, or join with adjacent
businesses in using a co-located mailbox (much like an apartment building).
Having a post office box is sometimes unpractical, especially for small businesses
that may have to close their doors while they go to the post office and pick up
their mail.
The Chamber of Commerce has been working diligently on this issue, and
recently one of their board members, James Haugen, presented a petition of local
businesses to Representative John Kline. Mr. Haugen also met with staff from the
United States Post Office, and they assured Mr. Haugen that they would look into
the issue.
Since Mr. Haugen's visit, several issues have been addressed. First, it was
determined that downtown businesses, since they are forced to have a post office
box, should not have been paying an annual rental fee for these boxes. The local
postmaster is looking into this and has said that if businesses were in fact paying a
rental fee, that practice would stop immediately.
Second, the post office has agreed to deliver any downtown businesses, as long as
they work with surrounding businesses to co-locate a collection box. While this is
not as good of a solution as door-to-door delivery, it does allow businesses to
receive mail at their physical address, instead of having a post office box.
Third, the issue of returned mail due to non-proper addressing has been discussed.
Those with a post office box were experiencing mail not being delivered because
the incorrectly addressed mail (either no post office box was provided or it was
incorrectly located on the address label) was being returned to the original sender.
The City 01 Chanhassen' A growing community with clean lakes, Quality schools, a charming downtown, thriving businesses, winding trails, and beautiful parks. A great place to live, work, and play.
Shortly after this practice began, the postmaster received numerous complaints.
He stated to us that he has since relaxed his enforcement of the practice and is not
sending back nearly as much mail as undeliverable.
Non-Chanhassen Mailing Addresses
Many residents in Chanhassen actually have a Chaska (55318) or Excelsior
(55331) mailing address due to their proximity to other post offices. These
residents also have different zip codes from the rest of Chanhassen (55317). If a
piece of mail is incorrectly addressed with a mismatched city and zip code, that
mail is often sent back as undeliverable. This is obviously a problem for many of
our residents, and one which staff has had many discussions with the post office
about. They claim that their system is automated and sorts mail by zip code, and
therefore makes it inefficient to look through mismatched mail. Furthermore,
much of the mail is sorted at the Minneapolis post office, where the employees do
not know Chanhassen streets. If the mail reached the Chanhassen postal annex,
the probability of it reaching the correct address increases, but many times the
mail is kicked out of the system before it comes to Chanhassen. The postmaster
stated that he will try to make sure that mail that does reach the Chanhassen postal
annex and has mismatched addresses will still be delivered as intended.
RECOMMENDA TION
Staff and the Chamber of Commerce have been working very hard on this issue
and will continue to have discussions with the local post office. Staff
recommends that the City Council provide any feedback and direct staff to report
back later in the year on progress towards the issues discussed above.