USPS refusing delivery service for two Springfield streets

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – People living on two Springfield streets on opposite sides of the city aren’t getting their mail delivered.

Neighbors tell us they’re now having to pick up their mail themselves due to either loose dogs or people threatening the postal workers.

“It makes it stressful, it really does,” said Cathy Sanders, who has lived in Springfield for over 30 years.

Residents are having to travel across town to the post office on Bennett Street to get their mail.

“It needs to be fixed,” said Springfield resident Brad Rikard. “The issue needs to be fixed.”

On North Lyon Ave. near Kearney St., residents tell me they are going on three weeks without mail delivery.

“It’s pretty inconvenient, especially where we have to go, which I’ll be over off north Kansas and Bennett,” said David Wisniewski.

Wisniewski lives near the corner of Lyon and Jean Street.

“It’s just our street,” Wisniewski said. “This block gets their mail, that block gets their mail. The businesses get their mail. We’re just not getting ours.”

He tells OzarksFirst there was no notice given that the mail would stop being delivered.

Rikard has to give Sanders a ride to the post office since she doesn’t have a car.

“The postal service, rain, sleet, snow, they’re supposed to deliver the mail,” Rikard said.

Officials with the post office tell me a carrier was threatened by a resident on North Lyon Ave. “Obviously, yeah, that’s unacceptable,” said Mark Inglett with the United States Postal Service. “The safety of our letter carriers is our top priority.”

That’s why USPS is not delivering there for the time being.

“Another neighbor is the problem and that’s not fair,” Rikard said.

In the Parkcrest neighborhood in southwest Springfield, people living on Westview Street have been unable to get their mail due to loose dogs making carriers feel unsafe.

“We take this very seriously,” Inglett said. “We need folks’ help. So please keep those dogs inside or in a fenced-in backyard, restrained at all times and away from the letter carriers.”

One solution would be to put a cluster box set at the end of the street or residents would have to buy and install curbside mailboxes themselves.

“These circumstances, of course, are unfortunate,” Inglett said. “We’re doing what we can to get that mail to the folks. But like I said before, the safety of our carriers is our top priority.”

Right now there is no timeline for when either neighborhood can expect to have their mail delivered again.

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