Postal Service gets rid of some mailboxes in Dayton

The U.S. Postal Service has decommissioned at least a handful of blue mailboxes in downtown Dayton, citing weak mail volumes at the collection points.

Mailboxes next to City Hall, the Dayton municipal and Montgomery County courts buildings, the Dayton Public Schools administration building and along West First Street have notices attached saying the collection points were scheduled for removal, many with deadlines that passed earlier this month.

The notices say recent studies found these boxes had insufficient mail volumes.

The decommissioned mailboxes in downtown are within blocks of mailboxes that remain in service.

A couple of mailboxes with posted removal notices are right next to boxes that appear to still be in operation.

The U.S. Postal Service has removed mail collection boxes from other U.S. communities, which officials attributed to declining mail volume during the coronavirus outbreak. At least a dozen mailboxes also were removed from across Montana.

This week, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Montana, demanded an explanation from Postmaster General Louis DeJoy about why mailboxes were removed from communities in his state.

“These actions set my hair on fire and they have real life implications for folks in rural America and their ability to access critical postal services like paying their bills and voting in upcoming elections,” he said in a prepared statement.

The Postal Service has been in news lately because some Democratic lawmakers have accused the Trump administration of interfering with the agency’s operations ahead of the upcoming election, when there could be a large increase in vote-by-mail.