USPS puts hold on mailbox removal
The U.S. Postal Service says that disappearing mailboxes in Columbus are all part of routine, ongoing efficiency measures or to safeguard the boxes from rioters, but it nonetheless will stop the practice of removing them for the next 90 days.
That lapse would mean that no more mailboxes should disappear in Franklin County until after the Nov. 3 election, now just 78 days away.
“The Postal Service reviews collection box density every year on a routine basis to identify redundant/seldom used collection boxes as First-class Mail volume continues to decline,” Naddia Dhalai, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service operations in Ohio, said in an email Monday.
Dhalai said boxes are identified for potential removal based on usage and customers get an opportunity to comment before any box is taken away. But “given the recent customer concerns the Postal Service will postpone removing boxes for a period of 90 days while we evaluate our customers’ concerns,” Dhalai said.
Dhalai declined to answer questions from The Dispatch specifically on how many mailboxes have been removed from Franklin County since Jan. 1, and how many letter sorting machines have been shut down.
In response to those two questions, Dhalai emailed only: “Thank you for your interest in the Postal Service,” and linked to a written statement by Postmaster General Louis Dejoy issued three weeks ago.
That statement generally refers to the Postal Service’s ongoing financial woes and belt-tightening efforts, but offers no information specific to Franklin County.
Local residents have posted anecdotal information on social media sites about disappearing mailboxes in their neighborhoods, including many Downtown, but The Dispatch has been unable to quantify the effort.
Dejoy’s cutbacks have generated headlines as they coincide with a COVID-19 epidemic that is expected to lead many more Ohio residents to vote by mail in the upcoming election than in past years.
Dejoy, a former CEO of a logistics firm and a major fund raiser for President Donald Trump, is slated to testify before a U.S. House committee next week into how his changes could potentially disrupt mail-in voting. bbush@dispatch.com @Reporterbush
A West Side man died Sunday night after a crash involving a motorcycle he was operating.
According to Columbus police, 40-year-old Justin Fisher, of the West Side, was driving a 1996 Honda motorcycle east on West Broad Street near Dana Avenue in Franklinton around 10:45 p.m. Sunday.
Police said 28-year-old Conrad Iles, of the Northeast Side, was driving a 2005 Nissan Murano west on West Broad Street and attempted to turn left onto Dana Avenue when Fisher struck the right front side of the Nissan.
Fisher was thrown from his motorcycle and landed in the most-westbound lane of West Broad Street. He was taken to Ohiohealth Grant Medical Center in critical condition, but died at 11:20 p.m. Sunday.
Iles was not injured.
The crash remains investigation.
Fisher’s death is the 41st traffic fatality in the city in 2020. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner under