Blue boxes being relocated for safer, easier mail dropoff downtown
The Prairie du Chien street department crew constructed this new U.S. Postal Service blue mailbox kiosk, located within the parking lot between the Courier Press and Century Link, off Beaumont Road.
The city and postal service are working together to complete the amenity for users within the coming weeks, which will include relocating the mailboxes from in front of the post office to this spot. (Photos by Correne Martin)
By Correne Martin
A change in location is happening for the two U.S. Postal Service blue collection boxes in front of the Prairie du Chien Post Office on Beaumont Road, as was decided and paid for by the city’s Redevelopment Authority (RDA).
The mailboxes will be reconfigured, in the coming weeks, within the new city parking lot between the Courier Press office and CenturyLink station. One blue box will face the north and the other will face the south. This will allow drivers to pull up on either side, drop mail into one of the boxes, then drive away. Drivers may enter off of Beaumont Road and exit in the alleyway, or vice versa.
The purpose of this change is to make mail dropoff safer and easier for all, especially the elderly, according to Roy George, speaking on behalf of the RDA, which met with city and postal service officials before approving the change.
“I think this will be a nice amenity that’s safer and more beneficial for the whole community,” George said.
People won’t have to walk across the busy road, cross the snow windrow in the winter time or drive against traffic to send their mail, stated Street Superintendent Dan Titlbach.
Titlbach and his crew led the charge, starting July 30, in constructing the concrete platform that will hold the two boxes and the yellow post barriers that will surround them.
Though four parking spaces were eliminated in the lot in order to provide this convenience, George said, it will free up parking on Beaumont where the blue boxes have stood until now.
