County to offer $100 for replacing broken mailboxes
By Kevin O’Brien
Landowners whose mailboxes are taken out by county snowplows will be eligible to receive a $100 gift card to purchase and install their own replacements in the future, under a policy change approved last week by the Marathon County Infrastructure Committee.
In the past, according to highway commissioner Jim Griesbach, members of his road crew would replace any damaged mailboxes with a standard 6x9x19 tin mailbox, but in recent years, more and more people are buying larger, rubber mailboxes. When he checked the prices at a hardware store, he found that the cost of a “deluxe” mailbox was just under $100.
Griesbach said people are not always happy when their larger mailbox is replaced by a
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smaller one, so he suggested that the county offer a $100 gift card as an alternative for those who want to pick out their own model and install it themselves.
The gift card option will often be cheaper for the county, he said, as it can cost as much as $300 or more for two highway workers to travel out to a rural home and replace a mailbox.
“We feel it would be a savings for us if we give the people a choice,” he said.
County plow trucks hit about 20 mailboxes per year, often because the drivers need to pull out of the way of oncoming traffic on a narrow roadway, he said. The county will only replace mailboxes hit directly by the plow blade, and not if the snow causes the damage.
“If it’s just snow coming off the plow, their mailboxes need to withstand that,” he said.
Also, according to the county’s policy, the highway department is not responsible for any damage done “to any fences, headwalls, trees, shrubs, plantings, and other structures that are improperly located within the public right-of-way.”
Landowners who suspect their mailbox was hit by a snow plow are expected to contact the highway department right away so workers can go out and inspect the damage, he said. If a new mailbox needs to installed, Griesbach said his department will send out instructions from the U.S. Postal Service to make sure they are placed in the proper location.
