“This request is necessary to improve emergency response times and properly identify residents and businesses within the city of Englewood boundaries,” William Singer Jr, the city’s community and economic development director wrote in a July 16 letter to a U.S. Postal Service official in Cincinnati.
Englewood residents and businesses had previously been directed by the postal service to use Clayton for mailing addresses associated with the zip code 45315 and Dayton for the 45415 zip code.
“This is a huge benefit to the entire area in terms of recognizing who lives and works where,” Englewood City Manager Eric Smith said.
Boundary confusion has been a problem for decades, Smith said.
“The post office has historically rejected all modernization attempts to correlate city boundaries with street addresses,” Smith said. “In fact, even though the zip code may be correct, if the letter has Englewood instead of Clayton within the Clayton designated route, the letter will be returned as undeliverable.”
Clayton Mayor Joyce Deitering said this mailing address issue is a regional concern affecting Clayton, Union, Englewood and to a lesser extent Brookville.
“The issue of zip codes for the various jurisdictions in the Northmont area has long been a sore spot with some residents,” Deitering said. “Clayton officials have tried to address this matter many times over the years with the postal service and our congressman has even tried to intervene.”
“Communities requesting a preferred last line are typically younger communities that are 50 years-old or less,” said David Van Allen, the United States Postal Service Corporate spokesperson.
The city of Oakwood was recently granted a similar preferred last line request and has been using its city’s name in its business and residential mailing address since May, according to Van Allen.
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