EudoraNews.com

Eudora resident Susie Brown has noticed some irregularities with the delivery of her mail.

Sometimes her mail does not come at its regular time. Other times, she gets mail addressed to another person with the same last name. She said her family has lived in her house on Acorn Street for seven years.

Last summer, she noticed delays in her mail delivery. Her biggest concern came when she mailed a letter to her mother in Atchison, which is about 67 miles away. Her mother received the letter more than two weeks later.

"Now I know why they call this snail mail," Brown said. "I could have driven it up there."

Eva Deonier, Eudora school district board clerk, said she has also seen periodic delays in Eudora's mail service.

Deonier had a problem last summer with a district payment check mailed to an insurance agency in Topeka. The check was received two weeks later. On Nov. 21, Deonier mailed a paycheck to a district employee who has a Eudora post office box. The check didn't arrive until Dec. 7, she said.

"I had to re-issue another check since it was lost," Deonier said.

Eudora Postmaster Marty Flanagan said residents concerned with any problems related to the city's mail service should contact the post office.

"If a person has a problem with their mail for whatever reason, the first step is to contact me," Flanagan said.

The problem-solving process begins with documentation. Flanagan said the post office uses a form called a 1510, which gets the process started.

"Has anyone filed a 1510 with us? No," Flanagan said. "Unless someone does something like certified mail or insurance, there's nothing to track it. It's just a matter of process. We're not going to be able to find that letter for them right then. The whole process could take from a couple of days to a couple of months."

Flanagan said more than 60 percent of problems with mail not being delivered can be traced back to improper addressing.

"That's probably the biggest, most important reason letters don't get to one place or another," Flanagan said. "The first step of any letter is proper addressing."

According to the United States Postal Service, a complete address is made up of three parts. The first is the recipient line, which includes the name of the addressee. The second line, or the delivery address line, includes the street address. The last line includes city, state, and zip code. Additional numbers, known as plus four, include four more numbers added to the zip code, separated with a hyphen to make sorting easier by the post office. Adding the plus-four numbers also quickens delivery time.

Flanagan said the proper way to curb any problem is to contact her.

"You're first stop is to come to the postmaster," she said.