Fight ends mail delivery for street

GRAND MOUND, Wash. – Rain, sleet, snow, and gloom of night are one thing. The safety of postal carriers is another, and because of that about a dozen ballots for the primary Aug. 19 will be delivered by hand, officials say.

County Auditor Kimberley Wyman said ballots will be taken Monday to 12 voters who live on Citrus Street Southwest outside Grand Mound, where a resident has accused a postal carrier of driving too fast in a residential area with children.

The ballots must be handed to each voter because federal law prohibits nonpostal employees from putting material into mailboxes, Wyman said, adding that it was the first time she had such a problem.

“We’ll call first because we have to give them to live people,” she said. “We’ll make sure our voters are taken care of.”

A resident, Al Kulp, told the Olympian newspaper on Friday he called the auditor’s office after mail delivery on the street was halted.

After a neighbor with children got into an argument during the week with the postal carrier, residents of about 13 homes were told to move their mailboxes to the end of the private street or to start picking up their mail at the post office, Kulp said.

“I’m at my wits’ end,” Kulp said. “This is nuts.”

Ernie Swanson, a spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service in Seattle, said conflict between the resident and the carrier had been ongoing for some time.

“We don’t want to put the carrier at risk,” Swanson said.