Small Md. Community Copes With Post Office Closing
LINEBORO, Md. (AP) -- After learning that the Lineboro Post Office was closing, Kathy McGee closed her post office box and began having mail delivered to her business, the Village Inn, on Main Street in Lineboro.
Sounds like an easy change, but it's been quite a headache for McGee.
A lot of her bills have been arriving late, she hasn't been receiving some mail at all, and some postal carriers can't find her
address and end up in Manchester.
"I'm getting less mail, and I'm not sure where some of its going," McGee said. "It'll catch up with me eventually."
The Lineboro Post Office closed Thursday because the building owner decided not to renew the lease, said Yvette Singh,
communications coordinator for Baltimore District post offices. The owner wants the postal service to remove the mail and 30 post office boxes from the property, Singh said.
"There will physically be no post office allowing (Lineboro residents) to use the 21088 ZIP code, however, residents will be able to use (Manchester's) 21102 ZIP code," Singh said.
Lineboro Post Office customers had 45 days' notice to change their address from their post office box in Lineboro to a physical address, erect a mailbox and receive curbside delivery, or get a post office box at the Manchester Post Office, Singh said.
McGee said there has always been confusion with mail getting delivered to Manchester instead of Lineboro because there's a Main Street and Church Street in both towns. But some Lineboro residents say using the new ZIP code will cause more confusion, and others say Lineboro is losing its identity.
Kate Warner, part-owner of RF Warner & Sons on Main Street in Lineboro, said she usually has business and personal packages delivered to her job because she's never home, but the FedEx and UPS drivers usually end up on Main Street in Manchester.
"They don't know how to find us," Warner said. "Lineboro has lost its identity."
When supply trucks and vendors try to deliver items to D&S Green Services on Main Street in Lineboro, they end up in Manchester and have to call for verbal directions, owner Dave Dickmyer said.
One time, FedEx couldn't find his physical address and delivered a package to a location in Melrose.
"We're going to lose our identity here, everything is going to be Manchester," he said.
Lineboro will not lose its identity because people who send mail will still be able to use the community's name, just not the old ZIP code, Singh said.
Dickmyer said he has decided to use his business address instead of a post office box and has sent letters to every vendor or business partner notifying them of the address change. But companies making deliveries to his business are still getting lost in Manchester.
Dickmyer said the postal service needs to find a way to distinguish between Manchester and Lineboro.
"It's a battle to convince people where we live," Dickmyer said. "Because the post office is closing, we would like to have
the problem fixed."
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
