This morning a resident on Davis Road called me about a brick column close to the roadway, one that could create a problem, should a driver's car begin to leave the paved portion of the road.Just west of Dean Street on Davis Road (just south of Route 14), there is a column of bricks built as a receptacle for a mailbox for the house on the north side of the road. It won't win any awards from Architectural Digest, but it does a good job of protecting the mailbox from miscreants who drive around at night with baseball bats and try to hit mailboxes out of the park.
And it's in the right-of-way.
The Dorr Township Road District has apparently known about it for a year. Other mailboxes, on wooden or metal posts, are constructed at about the same distance from the edge of the road, but this one is a "post" of great impediment to a driver whose attention wanders.
The Road District may have determined that the brick column should be removed, but it hasn't been a high priority. Will it move up the list?
4 comments:
When was the last time you heard of mailboxes getting hit by baseball bats anywhere in McHenry County? Anywhere else? Of course its in the right-of-way! The Postal Service has strict requirements for the placement of rural boxes! How else could it be reached from a car? Bet it doesn't get changed-at least not because of the Township or you.
From what I understand, these brick mailbox columns are not very solid, they will stop a bat from smashing the mailbox, but they will collapse if a car or snow plow, etc. hits them. I could be wrong, but that is what I understood when I looked into building one myself several years ago.
@woodstockabdicate- as a county resident for over 45 years, smashed mailboxes have been an annual football season/graduation season occurence for- oh, 45 years.
Unless you are visually impaired or homebound, I don't see how you can make that statement.
As to the legality of the brick mailbbox? A journalist would cite USPS and county regulations, and demonstrate how the mailbox fails to meet regulations.
An effective busybody would be able to identify at least 3 almost identical mailbox structures within city limits. I walk by two of them almost every day.
The mailbox pictured with this article has been removed.
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