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Old Ranch Road Mailboxes & Parcel Lockers Background: There has been
efforts on & off to improve our road Mailbox situation since
early 2001. Click here for Now: In short, I still feel there is some/decent chance to get mail delivery (at least partially) down our road via either the ex-postmaster stating to what he had previously agreed and/or our current postmistress agreeing to do this. Either way, this should certainly be resolved before a fall '06 ORRUA meeting. Regardless, we may want to have Capture-Key Parcel Boxes, so our mail delivery person can leave packages here, rather than go to the post office every time. So the basic alternatives we have now are: I. Do nothing for now. Hope for future delivery down ORR. II. Purchase 3 sets of mailbox.com 3302U double capture key parcel boxes + stands, including tax and delivery charges and 15% discount for a total of $1,692.25 (see proposal) and have these 3 units secured to each other and installed in cement by Paul Columbo in/around our current mailboxes (not much room!) for aproximately $600-700. These could be still used if the post office delivers mail down ORR in the future. I volunteer for some/all of these to be located on my property. III. Purchase the Parcel Boxes above, and install them in a new double-high mailbox stand (such as these upper pictures). This is my personal favorite (though I would prefer to wait until ~Sept to know for ~sure if we can get delivery down our ORR), and I am willing to donate some building & roofing materials, my time to help Paul Columbo (or other) to build it, and will donate $300 towards the cost. It could be placed on either side of the road (I suggest the opposite side, along Ron & Jeanne's property since it might be much safer and easier to get mail in the evenings by driving our vehicles next to it). Two years ago, Paul Columbo quoted $2200 - $2600 for building / installing the mailboxes & Parcel Boxes as shown in the picure. Neighbors could use their current mailboxes or, if some neighbors prefer to standardize, we could select suggested one (I suggest one with one attractive face, rather than many sides that might not look or age as well). To make our mailboxes look nicer, for everyone who will purchase (or if ORRUA purchases for all) the 4145GNE (below), I volunteer to sell everyone's existing boxes at the highest price possible (eBay, flea markets, etc.)and return all proceeds to the purchaser. As an additional option, we could vote on reimbursing owners of those trading in their different mailboxes some fraction of the difference of their remaining financial loss (e.g., if they bought a $100 box 1 yr ago and we can sell it for $50, maybe we offer to pay a little more to a person who requests this, for everyone's benefit of our neighborhood's most public identification to look very nice).
IV. Build what is described above in III., but SINGLE HEIGHT. Paul Columbo quoted this as $3800 - $4600. This COULD NOT go on the opposite side of the ORR apron (it could stay where boxes are now), since it would be too long. V. Other mailbox enclosure designs, such as the one on Loma Prieta (lower pictures), or others (please suggest!!!!!!!). VI. Multiple commercial CBUs (Cluster Box Units). While these are least expensive, they don't look very good, very 'mountain' / rural, they often do not weather well, and are smaller than individual boxes. Choices include:
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