Spaeth filled out
a change-of-address card but, soon after, he noticed that bills
and magazines normally scheduled to show up early in the month
had yet to arrive.
He said his son, who lives on the same road and also filled
out a change-of-address card, saw his mail delivery delayed
for about a week.
Residents who live on the road had previously petitioned the
judge-executive’s office to change the street name so
emergency crews would not confuse the two streets sharing the
U.S. 127 name. During a countywide update of 911 addresses,
according to Judge-Executive Billy O’Banion, old U.S.
127 was renamed Monterey Pike and new house numbers were assigned.
The change affected at least a dozen houses on a one-mile stretch
of the old U.S. highway near Monterey, he said.
Spaeth said, although he was not personally approached about
signing the petition to change the street name, he was OK with
it and understood why it was changed for 911 purposes.
But he said he was a bit perplexed to see a delay in his mail
delivery even though he had followed directions to update the
address change.
Postmaster Darla Baker said a customer contacted her on Feb.
1 or Feb. 2 about the new addresses, but she said she was unaware
of the change at the time.
She contacted the judge-executive’s office the following
Monday, Feb. 5, and was given a list of the new addresses.
“We have a good relationship with the county judge’s
office,” Baker said in an e-mail. “And they have
always been very helpful.”
Baker said it was necessary to update mail-processing equipment
in Lexington to recognize Monterey Pike as a valid street name.
O’Banion said his office had previously notified the post
office that it was updating addresses for 911 purposes in the
county, but he said he was unsure if the post office had been
aware of the letter mailed out notifying residents of the change
on Monterey Pike.
Baker said the delay in mail delivery for the two residences
on Monterey Pike likely resulted from the change-of-address
forms the households gave their mail carriers.
“When someone submits a change of address, we send it
to our forwarding unit in Lexington and hold the mail for a
confirmation that the new information has been entered in that
database,” she said, noting that the mail carrier followed
proper procedure upon receiving the change-of-address requests
from the residents on Monterey Pike. “We start sending
their mail to Lexington where the new address is placed on the
mail and forwarded to its new destination.
“I don’t think the customers who turned in change-of-address
forms realized how their mail would be handled and that there
would be a delay,” Baker said.
The postmaster noted that customers can decrease the delay in
receiving forwarded mail after filling out a change-of-request
card by contacting all the parties that regularly send them
mail and notifying them of the change, something Spaeth said
he did.
“We try to get the mail delivered even if it has a bad
address,” Baker said. “But many companies will put
an endorsement on the mail such as ‘do not forward,’
and the customer doesn’t understand why it wasn’t
delivered.”
O’Banion, who said he believes the case was an isolated
incident, said the road name change was expected to go before
the Fiscal Court to formalize the name change at its meeting
last night after press time. He said approval was not needed
from magistrates to begin the process to change the name and,
once approved by the court, his office would begin notifying
other state agencies of the street name change.
Other Fiscal Court news
Also at last night’s meeting, magistrates were expected
to speak with a representative from AT&T as the court continues
considering funding a public wireless broadband project for
the county.
Before the meeting, magistrates were also expected to meet the
judge-executive from Pendleton County to get an update on that
community’s broadband project, which is now in the testing
phase.
